Hand Washing and Infection Control in Nursing Homes

Quality Improvement Project
Quality Improvement Project
Kim Jackson
Indiana University of Pennsylvania
NURS 629
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Quality Improvement Project
Hand washing is one of the most important factors that address the aspect of the infection
and its control. In nursing homes, infection control is the most priority area that need to be
maintained by the nurse. The aspect of the hand hygiene maintenance can be achieved by
implementing the accurate procedure of hand washing. In order to implement the infection
control measures, STEEEP (safe, timely, effective, efficient, equitable and patient centered)
framework and QI (Quality improvement) principles is considered. The paper also highlights the
various factors affecting hand washing hygiene (Lopes, Sauers & Valier, 2017).
In order to maintain the aseptic control in a health care setting the nurses need to wash
their hands following the basic protocol of five movements after every single interaction with
patients and any kind of medication or activities related to clinical treatment. For instance, one of
the strategies for the hand hygiene maintenance would be implementation of the no touch policy
by utilizing aseptic gloves. This strategy is related to each factors of STEEEP framework and the
no touch policy is effective in control of the infection while handling the patients. The safety,
time and effectiveness of the no touch policy would be assessed by the means of the qualitative
and quantitative analysis of the changes occurred due to implementation of the no touch policy.
On the other hand the QI factor should be considered that are the PDSA (Plan-Do-Study-
Act) and the Lean Six Sigma factor. The nurses should be able to adhere to the hand hygiene
maintenance processes developed by the World Health Organization (WHO). The processes of
the hand hygiene maintenances devised by WHO includes the components such as the alcohol
based hand rub, antimicrobial soap, antiseptic agents, antiseptic hand wipe, and detergent as
surfactant, plain soap and waterless antiseptic agents. All these components should be included
in the strategy (Who.int, 2019). The steps of PDSA would be considered as per the planning
procedure which has included the finance and timeframe aspect. On the basis of the planning, the
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Quality Improvement Project
management team should be able to create a policy for proper implementation of the plan and to
empower the health care staffs. Management team observes the proper implementation to see the
progress of plan and its limitation which needed to be addressed. On the basis of the evaluation,
the changes need to be executed. On the other hand the Lean Six Sigma policy which depends on
the Define, Measure, Analyse, Improve and Control (DMAIC) factors can be achieved by the
implementation of the no touch policy. The hand washing components and procedure according
to the WHO regulations would be demonstrated to the health care professionals, and its
measurements would be analyzed on the basis of the time needed and financial cost for
implementation strategy of the plan. (Shabot et al., 2016). After the analysis of the planning and
its implementation, the required improvement and amendment will done. Therefore, the no touch
policy and hand washing is best for implementation to control infection in the health care setting.
The quality improvement can be achieved by the implementation of the hand hygiene and the
proper observation of the effectiveness of the policy in the infection control (Hess, Leisher,
Limbu, Magige & Kahwa , 2017).
Thus, the plan would be of utilizing the aseptic gloves and the no touch policy in a
priority basis. On the other hand the usage of alcohol based hand rub, antimicrobial soap,
antiseptic agents, antiseptic hand wipes, and detergent as surfactant, plain soap and waterless
antiseptic agents in every regular interval of work or in while interacting with clinical tools and
patients must be entertain in every health care sector.
Based on this discussion it can be stated that maintenance of hand hygiene based on the
no touch policy and proper hand washing strategies of WHO would help in the reduction of the
infection n the health care set up. Hence, the hand hygiene by hand wash technique and protocol
would be effective in the same context. The policies of the hand hygiene would be implemented
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