Hand Hygiene For Healthcare Providers
Healthcare providers are at the most risk of contracting infections while working in healthcare settings and needed to be hygiene. For example, if not disinfected properly, hospitals could become home to diseases and infections, something we all want to avoid. In this article. TheMarketSky guide about Hand Hygiene.
In a healthcare setting, everyone should be extremely cautious of infections spread by contamination. Unfortunately, germs like to hide in plain sight, and because these infection-causing microbes don’t want to discriminate, anyone can get infected anytime. However, more than anyone, healthcare workers are at risk, and they can minimize this risk by using Dettol hand wash regularly. Chigger Bites And Prevention?
Because they provide care to patients infected with infectious diseases, healthcare workers must always keep their guard up. A dull moment in the day or a mistake in hygiene maintenance could turn out to be very costly.
Healthcare-Associated Infections (HAIS) are a real threat and a major cause of death. Just in the United States of America, around 99,000 patients die annually, and approximately 1.7 million suffer pain and infections.
Just imagine a patient going to the hospital for treatment and getting infected with another disease during their stay. The trauma would be staggering. However, on the other side of the story, the doctors, nurses, and paramedic staff who come into contact with hundreds of patients daily without knowing their story, are more susceptible to getting infected.
Precautions
So what should the healthcare providers do? Naturally, they should follow instructions and take precautions as much as possible, but what are these precautions?
Everything that can help patients and healthcare workers stay protected from dangerous germs and diseases can be classified as precautions.
Maintaining impeccable hand hygiene lies at the center of this syllabus because it is the most effective method against germs and infections spread.
Everything should be viewed under the lens of cross-contamination, from shaking hands to touching different surfaces.
What exactly is cross-contamination, though? It is the process of transferring germs by contacting an infected surface and then transferring the same germs onto another surface or person.
Healthcare providers should:
- Follow hand hygiene protocols
- Handle equipment carefully
- Maintain a safe distance from patients infected with communicable diseases whenever possible.
- Watch out for needle stick injuries.
Equipment disinfection
Although it doesn’t fall under the heading of hand hygiene, it is still crucially interrelated to the process. For example, medical equipment might come into contact with patient fluids throughout the day, making these surfaces susceptible to spreading infection.
The equipment should be disinfected properly before being sterilized. When cleaning equipment, 2 protocols should be followed, one after another, i.e., disinfecting appropriately with a chemical solution and then placing the equipment in an autoclave where equipment is sterilized.
This rids the equipment of germs that might have otherwise been transferred from one surface to another, complimenting the hand hygiene protocols.
Hand hygiene
Hand hygiene is the single most important factor that can help people stay safe and protected but do you know about the most effective methods of hand hygiene?
There are two ways to keep your hands clean. One is to use hand sanitizer, and another is to wash the hands with bar soap and water.
An alcohol-based hand sanitizer
An alcohol-based hand sanitizer contains more than 60-70% isopropyl alcohol, according to the Environmental protection agency (EPA). This should be used:
- After touching a patient
- Before handling a medical device or equipment
- Before shifting from one infected area to a clean area
- Before examining a patient
- After removing the gloves
- After getting into touch with bodily fluids
Washing hands with soap and water
Washing your hands with soap and water is the best way to keep your hands free of germs. Microbes are everywhere and they surely get on your hands while you are doing everyday work but because you can’t see them, you make the mistake of presuming your hands are free of germs which is definitely not the case.
However, specifically, healthcare providers should:
- Wash their hands after caring for a patient that is suffering from an infectious disease.
- Wash their hands when they can visibly see the dirt and tint.
- Wash their hands after they suspect coming into contact with spore. It doesn’t matter what is established afterward, but they should wash their hands even upon exposure.
How to wash?
Hand washing isn’t just something that you should get over, just like that. Like every other thing that is done for a purpose, you need to give time to this process too. However, the time required is very little, just about 30 seconds.
Yes, you need to lather your hands with a bar of soap and water and repeatedly rinse for 30 second. After doing this, you can be sure that your hands are clean and free from germs. Healthcare providers have their own regime when washing hands in a hospital setting.
It is thorough and comprehensive and often involves washing hands up to elbows.
Takeaway
So, the take-home message is that germs are everywhere and can’t be seen with the naked eye. Therefore, one must be extremely cautious of the diseases and infections lurking in the dark, especially healthcare providers. And washing hands with soap and water is the best defense against these germs. The healthcare worker can also use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer to keep germs at bay when the situation requires it.
So this is all about hand hygiene for healthcare providers. If you still have any questions, you can let us know. We’d be more than happy to help you out.
