The Evidence based practice

Running head: Evidence based practice
Effectiveness of Staff Reminder Systems in improving Hand Hygiene
Compliance
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Authors Note
Student Name, Student Number, Course Code
1

Introduction
Hand hygiene is a significant factor in healthcare centres to prevent the infection of
borne diseases in acute care units. Healthcare providers are exposed to different infections
while treating patients. Hand washing is necessary during the administration of medicines
and clinical care to prevent spreading of infection. Practices related to hand hygiene could
reduce transmission of pathogens such as virus and bacteria and chemicals to patients’ body.
Approximately 1 in 10 patients in hospitals are prone to develop infection by the lack of
handhygiene. As per the reports of Queensland government 200000 cases are recorded in
every year due to Hand Associated Infections (www.health.qld.gov.au.2020). Hand washing
or hygiene is associated not only with nurses but also to the patients. One intervention, which
can be followed by the nurses, is the application of alcohol-based sanitisers in the hand
hygiene. Detergent or plain soap and water is used for washing hands, but this method is not
as effective as the former one. Department of Health and Human Services assured to commit
health and safety of patient’s services and provision of a safe working environment for the
healthcare providers.
Australian commission of Safety and Quality in Healthcare established National Hand
Hygiene Initiatives to reduce the rate of healthcare-associated infection by different education
resources with other initiatives.
After 10 years, HHA and commission both agreed to the success of hand hygiene rate
with the support and coordination of different healthcare organisations. Adequate supplies of
alcohol-based hand rub are effective ina different point of care for various hospitals. DHHS
was committed to the Australian HealthcareCommission with HCAI strategies, which include
national hand hygiene and national surveillance and information regarding healthcare
infections. Alcohol based hand sanitisers are mainly acted on destroying the cell membrane
and the body proteins of bacteria cells. The gram negative bacteria are more susceptible to the
Student Name, Student Number, Course Code
2

these type of sanitisers.Peptidoglycan cell wall can be dissolved by the effect of alcohol and
act as anticeptic.Alcohol-based hand sanitisers consist of isopropyl alcohol, ethanol or n-
propanol and consists of 60-95% alcohol in the hand sanitizer. Due to the presence of these
components,sanitisers take less time to dry, can killthe germs or microorganisms in a faster
rate, reduce bacterial count, are not antimicrobial resistant. Sanitisers in which the percentage
of alcohol content is 70% or more , are proved to be more effective in killing bacteria.
However, some issues for example, irritation of skin , drying and iching can also be observed
after using high alcohol content sanitisers.
PICO Question
The PICO framework is used to form relevant questions and influence the pieces of
literature for assessing the effectiveness of Evidence-based practice in the health care
industry. PICO stands for population, intervention, comparison and outcome. The question
guiding this evidence review is “In acute care setting of a healthcare organisation, using
alcohol-based hand sanitiser with 60% alcohol content are more effective in comparison of
regular soap and water to reduce infection in patients admitted to the hospitals?”
The elements of this PICO question are described as follows;
P (Population) Patients admitted to the hospitals
I (interventions) Alcohol-based hand sanitizers with 60%
alcohol
C (Comparison) Plain soap and water
O (Outcome) Reduce the rate of infection among the
patients admitted to the hospitals
Student Name, Student Number, Course Code
3

Evidence Search Strategy
Inclusion and exclusion criteria
The articles are searched from thedatabases such as Google Scholar, PubMed,
CINHAL etc.
The inclusion criteria for searching articles are
 Only English articles are chosen
 The keywords should be included in the articles
 Only peer-review or scholarly articles are selected
 Articles should be published within 5 years
The exclusion criteria are :
 Articles with different languages except for English
 Articles which are not peer-review or scholarly should not be chosen
 Articles which do not contain the keywords
 Articles,which are not published within years
Appraisal of articles
To review the articles, CASP (Critical Appraisal Skills Programme) tool will be used.
This tool helps to develop an evidence-based approach for the healthcare sectors associated
with local or international groups. The critique tool is used for developing the sense of
analysis and skills related to the research practices. The purpose of a critique tool is to
analyze the validity of the research findings in the practical field. Relevance and validity or
trustworthiness of the selected papers can be assessed systematically.
Student Name, Student Number, Course Code
4