Impact of Hand Hygiene on Infection Rate in Hospitals

Running head: NURSING ASSIGNMENT
NURSING ASSIGNMENT
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

1NURSING ASSIGNMENT
Abstract:
This research project deals with the evaluation of the impact of hand hygiene on the reduction
of infection rate across hospital settings. A number of studies have revealed the positive
impact of effective hand hygiene on reduced rate of infection but the compliance rate with the
hand hygiene routine is significantly low among the nursing professionals. To analyze the
underlying reason for lower rate of compliance a qualitative research study design was
adapted. Five nursing professionals were interviewed by the researcher, who were asked a
total of 5 semi-structured questions. The findings revealed two important themes, patient
priority leads to compromise with HH routine and incorporation of training helps in effective
compliance with HH among professionals. Hence, to conclude it can be said that with
effective training and stringent infection control policies professionals can be trained to
comply with hand hygiene practices.

2NURSING ASSIGNMENT
Table of Contents
Research Question:.....................................................................................................................3
Literature Review:......................................................................................................................3
Relevance to nursing knowledge:..............................................................................................4
Research Gap:............................................................................................................................5
Project Framework:....................................................................................................................5
Method of data-collection:.........................................................................................................6
Method of data-analysis:............................................................................................................6
Findings of research:..................................................................................................................7
Conclusion:................................................................................................................................7
References:.................................................................................................................................8

3NURSING ASSIGNMENT
Research Question:
Whether hand-hygiene can effectively help in the reduction of communicable
infections within hospital setting (I: Intervention)among nursing professionals (P:
Population)in order to effectively acquire positive patient outcome and reduce the possibility
of in-hospital infections.
Literature Review:
According to Castle et al. (2014), it has been mentioned that 1 out of 10 patients
experience nosocomial infection during the tenure of their hospital stay. It has further been
estimated that, approximately 1.4 million people suffer from Health-care associated
infections (HAI) every year on account of poor hygiene practices at hospitals (Castle et al.,
2014). It should be critically noted in this context that, hospital acquired infection contribute
to a cumulative of 1.7 million infections and almost 99,000 death every year (Ariyaratne et
al., 2015). As mentioned by Allegranzi et al.(2013), healthcare associated infections can be
defined as infections that patients invariably acquire while receiving treatment for their
medical condition. The infections are preventable and are mainly transmitted to the patients
during surgical procedures and through medical equipment that include catheters, syringes,
surgical instruments and ventilators. As stated by Chun et al. (2015), HAIs account for a
major proportion of morbidity and mortality cases across the United States of America.
Further, it has been stated that at any point of time, 1 out of 25 hospitalized patients are
affected by an infection worldwide (Cruz & Bashtawi, 2016) . In general, health-associated
infections occur across a multitude of hospital settings that include, Acute care hospitals,
Ambulatory surgical centres, Dialysis facilities, Outpatient care unit and Long-term care
facilities (Gould et al., 2017). In order to address the emerging health concern, the U.S
department of Health and Human Services, has laid down healthcare-associated infection