Hospital Practices and Research

Abstract Hand hygiene is crucial in preventing healthcare-associated infections. Despite global efforts, hospital-acquired infections persist, and hand hygiene compliance remains low, averaging around 40%. While alcohol-based hand rubs (ABHR) effectively prevent infection spread, improper glove use and non-compliance with the World Health Organization's five moments for hand hygiene are common challenges in healthcare settings. A key barrier to compliance is the high workload of healthcare workers, who often lack time to remove gloves and disinfect hands between patient interactions. In situations where glove changes are impractical, glove disinfection may offer a feasible alternative. Evidence suggests that disinfecting gloves with ABHR could reduce contamination and improve compliance. With limited personal protective equipment resources in hospital settings, glove disinfection has shown potential benefits, including reduced workload, cost savings, and environmental impact. Studies demonstrate that regular glove disinfection significantly reduces microbial transmission compared to the gold standard of hand hygiene. Despite these findings, further research is necessary to assess the long-term safety and effectiveness of glove disinfection before it can be widely adopted as an alternative to glove removal and hand hygiene.

Abstract Background: Hand hygiene has been recognized as an upfront yet a vital practice that halts the transmission of nosocomial contagions or healthcare-associated diseases in hospital locations. In healthcare organizations, hand hygiene is an important component of contagion prevention and protects patients' safety as a low-cost intervention.
Objectives: The objective of the present study was to evaluate hand hygiene practices among public health nurses in Trauma and Specialist Hospital and Winneba Municipal Hospital in the Effutu Municipality in the Central Region of Ghana.
Methods: This study employed a quantitative approach with a descriptive cross-sectional design. Structured questionnaires were used to collect data from 100 respondents through simple random sampling technique. Data analysis was done using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS), version 21.
Results: Findings revealed a low level of knowledge on hand hygiene (45%) among the respondents and a high hand hygiene practice (79%). Most of the respondents always washed their hands immediately after a risk of body fluid exposure (95%) and few always washed their hands before touching a patient (60%). Most of the respondents always rubbed soap on wet hands before rinsing (78%) and few of them always allowed their hands to dry (16%). The barriers which prevented most of the respondents from washing their hands in the health facility were busy work schedules (65%), forgetfulness (61%), lack of hand hygiene resources in the health facility (38%), minimal patient contact (37%) and lack of knowledge on hand hygiene (13%).
Conclusion: Respondents in this study exhibited a low level of knowledge on hand hygiene yet, hand hygiene practice among them was found to be somewhat satisfactory. The study recommends that multifaceted and dedicated efforts must be made to rectify the barriers which impede public health nurses from effectively complying with hand hygiene practices in the health facilities.

Abstract Background: Hand hygiene plays a key role in the prevention of healthcare-associated infection in critical patients.
Objective: The current study aimed to evaluate compliance with hand hygiene practices.
Methods: An observational and descriptive study was carried out in a 35-bed medical-surgical critical care unit in La Habana (Cuba) from January 2017 to December 2018. The observational method recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) was used.
Results: Overall compliance was 34.2% (5516/16 125), with better compliance among physicians (39%) compared with nurses (31.4%) and ancillary staff (19.5%). Better compliance was observed after patient contact (65.7%) and after contact with patients’ surroundings (42.0%) in comparison with greater focus on patient safety as before patient contact (23.3%) and before an aseptic task (11.4%). Hand washing was performed more frequently than hand rubs.
Conclusion: Compliance with hand hygiene practices is low and no improvement in compliance was observed during the study period. This practice is related to the high risk of transmission of healthcare-related infections in critical patients and requires quality improvement interventions.