University of the Sunshine Coast: Hand Hygiene and HAIs Research

This presentation, designed as a research poster, explores the critical role of hand hygiene in preventing hospital acquired infections (HAIs). The introduction highlights the prevalence of HAIs, particularly those caused by MRSA, and poses a PICO question: Does hand washing among healthcare workers reduce hospital acquired infections? The methods section details the literature search strategy, including the use of CINAHL and PubMed databases, and the selection of five peer-reviewed articles. The results section summarizes key findings from quantitative studies, emphasizing the importance of hand hygiene in reducing HAIs. The discussion analyzes the results, highlighting the need for healthcare professionals to maintain proper hand hygiene to improve patient outcomes and recovery. The conclusion reinforces the significance of hand hygiene as a primary infection control measure and the need for continuous education and adherence to hand hygiene protocols. The presentation includes a research review matrix and references to support the findings.

Poster title
Author/Authors
University of the Sunshine Coast
INTRODUCTION
With the advancement in maintaining hygiene in the healthcare sectors, the
prevalence of hospital acquired infection is still inevitable among the admitted
patients delaying their recovery process (Bhagawati 2018). Evidences have shown that
Methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is the most common cause of
HAIs and has been isolated from the hands of more than half of health care workers
(Adegboye et al. 2018). The PICO question developed in this area is therefore, Does
hand washing among healthcare workers reduce hospital acquired infections.
PICO Question
Does hand washing among healthcare workers reduce hospital acquired infections?
METHOD
RESULTS DISCUSSION
CONCLUSION
REFERENCES
The analyses shows that there is a need to educate the healthcare professionals regarding the importance of
maintaining hand hygiene in order to eradicate the risk of developing hospital acquired infection. Hospital acquired
infection decreases patient’s health outcome and slows down the recovery process. Therefore, health care workers
including nurses must ensure to maintain proper hand hygiene by practicing certain strategies like washing hand with
liquid soap and using alcohol hand rub in order to prevent the occurrence of healthcare acquired infections that have
detrimental effect on the patients health. Proper measures must be taken by the healthcare workers and they should be
given adequate knowledge about the adverse effects of hospital acquired infections and the underlying consequences
so that they can contribute to the process of taking preventive measures to promote health and control infections.
Articles were searched in both CINAHL and Medline/Pubmed databases. A total of 5
articles were chosen and included in the study. After getting the results from the initial
search, more specific keywords were used to narrow down the search. Out of 21 articles,
5 were peer reviewed. Articles that gave conclusive results and was well structured in a
chronological manner and contains all information were chosen. The articles were
searched and retrieved with the keywords like “hand hygiene”, “hospital acquired
infection”, “ hospital associated infection”. “hand washing techniques”, “hand hygiene
interventions”.
.
Reference for image
Adegboye, M.B., Zakari, S., Ahmed, B.A. and Olufemi, G.H., 2018. Knowledge, awareness and practice of infection control by
health care workers in the intensive care units of a tertiary hospital in Nigeria. African health sciences, 18(1), pp.72-78.
Bhagawati, G., 2018. Get aware of hand hygiene: Implement it in your attitude. Journal of education and health promotion, 7.
McLaws, M.L., 2015. The relationship between hand hygiene and health care-associated infection: it’s complicated. Infection
and drug resistance, 8, p.7.
Shobowale, E.O., Adegunle, B. and Onyedibe, K., 2016. An assessment of hand hygiene practices of healthcare workers of a
semi-urban teaching hospital using the five moments of hand hygiene. Nigerian medical journal: journal of the Nigeria Medical
Association, 57(3), p.150.
Zakeri, H., Ahmadi, F., Rafeemanesh, E. and Saleh, L.A., 2017. The knowledge of Hand hygiene among the healthcare workers of
two teaching hospitals in Mashhad. Electronic physician, 9(8), p.5159.
All the 6 articles chosen are quantitative study. 5 of them are peer reviewed journals and 4 articles are cross sectional
studies. The studies have obtained ethical approval and incorporated participants or respondents. The data collected are
analysed to get the result. The studies included are quantitative studies therefore data gathered are further evaluated and
analysed to reach a conclusive conclusion.
Table 1: PICO Elements of the
above research question
Sl No Author and year Study design Aim of research Sample size Outcomes
1 Zakeri et al. 2017 Cross sectional
study For determining the
knowledge on hand
hygiene practices
among the healthcare
workers and finding the
areas gaps in their
awareness or
knowledge about the
same.
A total of 161
respondents
including 32
residents, 37 nursing
assistants and 98
nurses were
included in the
study.
68% of the health
workers were found
to have moderate
knowledge on hand
hygiene. The score
of 21% was
considered to be
poor and about
10.6% had proper
knowledge in this
area.
2
Adegboye et al.
2018
Cross sectional
study
To evaluate and
determine the
infection control
practice among the
healthcare workers in
the Intensive care unit
(ICU).
The participants
included 68
physicians and 12
non physicians.
A total of 69
respondents
acknowledged the
fact that hand wash
is the most common
way of preventing
transmission of
infection among
patients in the
Intensive Care (ICU).
3 Shobowale,
Adegunle and
Onyedibe 2016
Cross-sectional
study
To determine the
compliance of
healthcare workers
with the World Health
Organization (WHO)
prescribed five
moments of hand
hygiene since it is
related to patient’s
care.
166 observations
were recorded from
the healthcare
workers.
By analysing the P
values, a very low
rate of compliance
to hand hygiene
were found. Among
the healthcare
workers.
4 Bhagawati 2018 A cross-sectional,
semi-structured,
questionnaire-
based study.
To determine the
awareness regarding
most frequent source
germs causing hospital
acquired infections.
The study was
carried out in a super
specialty hospital,
Uttar Pradesh, India.
Questionnaires were
circulated on the
training session of
HH organized in the
eve of World HH
Day on May 5th,
2016.
>80% of the
respondents gave
correct response.
80-50% gave
satisfactory result
and <50% were
unsatisfactory.
5 McLaws 2015 Literature review To determine the
relationship between
hand hygiene and
healthcare associated
infection.
Hand hygiene
interventions are
carried out with
other preventive
strategies therefore
thee is a chance that
these strategies may
confound the
effectiveness of
hand hygiene
program.
P (Problem/Population) Hospital acquired infections
I (Intervention) Hand hygiene
C (Comparison) Hand washing with liquid soap or alcohol based hand rub
O (Outcome) Reduced infection
Healthcare workers while working in clinical settings come across
contaminants that increases their risk of developing infections among the
patients that leads to a poor health outcome of the patient, slows down the
recovery process and expedites longer hospital stay. Hand hygiene can be
considered as the primary step to a program for infection control and the
healthcare policies for infection prevention and control aims at eradicating
the chance of developing hospital acquired infections by maintaining hand
hygiene and proper clinical waste disposal (Shobowale, Adegunle and
Onyedibe 2016). Healthcare professionals working in the clinical settings
must be aware of health care acquired infections and the importance of
hand hygiene and practice it either by washing hands with liquid soap or
using alcohol based hand rub (Zakeri et al. 2017) (McLaby 2015).
Table 2: Research review matrix