scholarly journals Hand Areas Which Are Commonly Missed during Hand Disinfection by Nursing Students Who Completed a Basic Educational Course in Hand Hygiene

Author(s):  
Agnieszka Gniadek ◽  
Beata Ogórek-Tęcza ◽  
Anna Inglot ◽  
Anna Nowacka ◽  
Agnieszka Micek

Background: Teaching nursing students how to correctly perform hand hygiene procedures may guarantee a reduction in transmitting pathogens through direct contact and, thus, it may lead to a decrease in the number of hospital infections. The aim of the study, which was conducted in low fidelity simulation conditions, was to assess the performance and the efficiency of a hand-rubbing disinfection technique among nursing students on the last day of their course. Materials and methods: The study was conducted in a group of 190 nursing students studying at the Jagiellonian University and it focused on the performed hand-rubbing disinfection procedure. The accuracy of the task performance was assessed by measuring the percentage of the amount of Fluo-Rub (B. Braun) fluorescent alcohol-based gel remaining on students’ hands after disinfection. The gel was rubbed into particular hand parts including four surfaces (left palm, right palm, left back and right back) divided into thirteen areas (I–XIII) and each surface was examined separately. The results were then dichotomized based on the cut-off point of 10% and two categories: “clean” and “dirty” were established. Additionally, the range of negligence in the disinfection procedure was assessed by counting the total number of the areas classified as “dirty”. The comparison of continuous and categorical variables was conducted by means of Friedman’s and Cochrane’s tests, respectively. Results: It was found out that the palm surfaces that were commonly missed during hand disinfection included the whole thumb (I and VI), the fingertip of the little finger (V) and the midpalm (XIII), whereas in the case of back surfaces (on both right and left hand) the most commonly missed areas were the fingertips and the whole thumb I–VI. Only 30 students (13%) had all 52 areas of both hands completely clean, whereas more than one third—66 students (33%)—failed to disinfect properly more than 10 areas out of all assessed ones on the surfaces of both hands. Conclusions: In the examined group of nursing students, a significant lack of compliance with hand disinfection procedures was observed and it was related mainly to thumbs and back parts of both hands. Therefore, it is essential to conduct systematic training sessions and assessment of hand hygiene procedures for nursing students at the end of every educational stage as it can lead to their developing these skills properly.

Author(s):  
Manasa K. ◽  
Chandrakumar S. G. ◽  
Prashantha B.

Background: Improper hand hygiene among health care workers is the main cause for many nosocomial infections. Lack of knowledge and lack of recognition of hand hygiene opportunities during patient care are mainly responsible for poor hand hygiene among health care workers.Methods: Knowledge on hand hygiene was assessed using WHO hand hygiene questionnaire among medical and nursing students of Mysore medical college and research institute.Results: Among 276 medical and 225 nursing students who participated in the study, 26% of medical and 33% of nursing students had received formal training in hand hygiene in the last three years. Less than 50% of students had knowledge on source, routes of transmission of germs and minimal time needed for hand rubbing in hospital setting.Conclusions: The knowledge is limited on hand hygiene actions which shows the importance of inclusion of hand hygiene topic in curriculum. 


Author(s):  
Jonas Preposi Cruz ◽  
Charlie P. Cruz ◽  
Abdullah Suleiman Diab Al-Otaibi

2021 ◽  
pp. 1942602X2098695
Author(s):  
Julie Perry ◽  
Natasha McClure ◽  
Rebecca Palmer ◽  
Jeremy L. Neal

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has raised awareness about the vital role school nurses have in improving the overall health of children. School nurses provide health promotion within schools, yet over 60% of schools have only a part-time nurse or no nurse. Nursing students may be valuable partners for health promotion and academic–community partnerships may be mutually beneficial to schools of nursing and local schools. Using a nursing student team to teach hand hygiene while school health staff were present provided an opportunity for hands-on training to help the staff master curriculum content and ensure competency. This article describes a collaborative partnership initiative that expanded access to health promotion education in schools to increase knowledge about reducing the spread of infectious disease, such as COVID-19, while providing valuable clinical experiences for nursing students.


mSphere ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (5) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ryohei Hirose ◽  
Takaaki Nakaya ◽  
Yuji Naito ◽  
Tomo Daidoji ◽  
Risa Bandou ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT Both antiseptic hand rubbing (AHR) using ethanol-based disinfectants (EBDs) and antiseptic hand washing (AHW) are important means of infection control to prevent seasonal influenza A virus (IAV) outbreaks. However, previous reports suggest a reduced efficacy of ethanol disinfection against pathogens in mucus. We aimed to elucidate the situations and mechanisms underlying the reduced efficacy of EBDs against IAV in infectious mucus. We evaluated IAV inactivation and ethanol concentration change using IAV-infected patients’ mucus (sputum). Additionally, AHR and AHW effectiveness against infectious mucus adhering to the hands and fingers was evaluated in 10 volunteers. Our clinical study showed that EBD effectiveness against IAV in mucus was extremely reduced compared to IAV in saline. IAV in mucus remained active despite 120 s of AHR; however, IAV in saline was completely inactivated within 30 s. Due to the low rate of diffusion/convection because of the physical properties of mucus as a hydrogel, the time required for the ethanol concentration to reach an IAV inactivation level and thus for EBDs to completely inactivate IAV was approximately eight times longer in mucus than in saline. On the other hand, AHR inactivated IAV in mucus within 30 s when the mucus dried completely because the hydrogel characteristics were lost. Additionally, AHW rapidly inactivated IAV. Until infectious mucus has completely dried, infectious IAV can remain on the hands and fingers, even after appropriate AHR using EBD, thereby increasing the risk of IAV transmission. We clarified the ineffectiveness of EBD use against IAV in infectious mucus. IMPORTANCE Antiseptic hand rubbing (AHR) and antiseptic hand washing (AHW) are important to prevent the spread of influenza A virus (IAV). This study elucidated the situations/mechanisms underlying the reduced efficacy of AHR against infectious mucus derived from IAV-infected individuals and indicated the weaknesses of the current hand hygiene regimens. Due to the low rate of diffusion/convection because of the physical properties of mucus as a hydrogel, the efficacy of AHR using ethanol-based disinfectant against mucus is greatly reduced until infectious mucus adhering to the hands/fingers has completely dried. If there is insufficient time before treating the next patient (i.e., if the infectious mucus is not completely dry), medical staff should be aware that effectiveness of AHR is reduced. Since AHW is effective against both dry and nondry infectious mucus, AHW should be adopted to compensate for these weaknesses of AHR.


Author(s):  
Meike M. Neuwirth ◽  
Swetlana Herbrandt ◽  
Frauke Mattner ◽  
Robin Otchwemah

Abstract Background: The “HygArzt” project investigated the effectiveness of hygiene measures introduced by an infection prevention link physician (PLP). Objective: To investigate whether the introduction of a standardized aseptic dressing change concept (ADCC) by a PLP can increase hand hygiene adherence and adherence to specific process steps during an aseptic dressing change (ADC) in a trauma surgery and orthopedic department. Methods: We defined 4 required hand disinfection indications: (1) before the preparation of ADC equipment, (2) immediately before the ADC, (3) before the clean phase, and (4) after the ADC. A process analysis of the preintervention phase (331 ADCs) was used to develop a standardized ADCC. The ADCC was introduced and iteratively adopted during the intervention phase. The effect was evaluated during the postintervention phase (374 ADCs). Results: Hand hygiene adherence was significantly increased by the introduction of the ADCC for all indications: (1) before the preparation of the ADC equipment (from 34% before to 85% after, P <.001), (2) immediately before an ADC (from 32% before to 85% after; P < .001), (3) before the clean phase (from 42% before to 96% after; P < .001), and (4) after an ADC (from 74% before to 99% after; P < .001). Overall hand hygiene adherence was analyzed before the indications for an ADC (from 9.6% before to 74% after; P < .001). The same strategy was applied to the following process parameters: use of a clean work surface, clean withdrawal of equipment from the dressing trolley, and appropriate waste disposal. Conclusions: A PLP sufficiently implemented a standardized concept for aseptic dressing change during an iterative improvement process, which resulted in a significant improvement in hand hygiene and adherence to other specific ADCC process steps.


2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  

Introduction: The objective of this study was to evaluate the practice of hand hygiene in the maternities of the public hospitals of Lubumbashi. Method and techniques: We carried out a cross-sectional descriptive study in which the population consisted on the one hand of the technical rooms of the maternity hospitals and the operating rooms for cesarean sections and on the other hand the nurses responsible for these maternities. The observation technique using an observation guide of the WHO model allowed us to collect the data. Results: Hand hygiene was not properly carried out in the maternity wards of Lubumbashi's public hospitals. Most of the prerequisites before hand washing and hydro-alcoholic hand rubbing were not respected, the prerequisites for surgical hand washing were observed only at 21.4%:e wearing of short-sleeved clothing (43.0%),absence of jewelry (78.6%), short nails without varnish and false nails (50.0%). In the absence of hydroalcoholic solution (SHA) (71.4%) for the friction, they used denatured alcohol (28.6%). The duration of soaping and friction was in an interval between 11 to 20 seconds or 42.9% and that of hygienic hand washing was observed at 28.6%. The duration of surgical and antiseptic hand washing was 21 to 40 seconds to 35.7%. Only 21.4% of the departments surveyed had used the broad-spectrum antiseptic foaming solution, no structure had a sterile disposable brush for hygienic and surgical hand washing, 2/14 departments surveyed had sterile disposable towels, the water used had not undergone bacteriological control and only one service, ie 7.1%, which had non-manually operated bins. Conclusion: Hand hygiene is not properly carried out in maternity hospitals in Lubumbashi's public hospitals, due to a lack of equipment and knowledge on this practice, equipment must be provided and staff trained in hand hygiene.


2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (suppl_1) ◽  
pp. S402-S402
Author(s):  
Tomislav Mestrovic ◽  
Goran Kozina ◽  
Marijana Neuberg ◽  
Rosana Ribic

Abstract Background Adequate training of health workers is pivotal in the prevention of healthcare-associated infections (HAI). Our aim was to assess the theoretical and applied knowledge about the risk factors and effective measures of HAI prevention (most notably the use of standard precautions and hand hygiene practices) in second year undergraduate university nursing students that have already completed obligatory courses in microbiology, infectious diseases and epidemiology. Methods This study included a whole generation of second year undergraduate nursing students, comprised of 161 female and 25 male participants (186 in total), from a public university in Croatia (University Centre Varaždin, University North). They were given an anonymous questionnaire (developed on the model used by Tavolacci et al. in 2008) covering three domains: General Knowledge of HAI, Standard Precautions (SP) and Hand Hygiene (HH). The acceptable score overall (max. 30) and for each area (max. 10) was arbitrarily set at ≥ 20 and ≥ 7, respectively (in accordance with prior research). Results The age range of surveyed students was 19–37 (mean: 21.97, median: 21, mod: 20). An accurate definition of nosocomial infections was provided by 98.92% students (with 60.75% of them defining it as the infection occurring 48 hours after hospital admission). The overall score was 21.5, which indicates sufficient level of applied knowledge of healthcare-associated infections. Very high level of knowledge was observed for the SP area (total score of 9.5); however, the level of knowledge in HAI and HH domains was inadequate (5.9 and 6.1, respectively). There was no statistically significant difference in the overall or specific scores between male and female students (P &gt; 0.05). Formal teaching during the curriculum was students’ primary source of information (60.22%), followed by practical learning in the ward during work (23.65%), formal teaching in the ward (9.68%) and self-learning (6.45%). Conclusion Periodical checking of nursing students’ knowledge on HAI and corresponding curriculum modifications in obligatory courses tackling this topic are advised in order to fill the knowledge gaps, improve training, reduce infection rates and increase compliance with prevention measures. Disclosures All authors: No reported disclosures.


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