Hand Hygiene in The Hospital: Personal Experience

It’s the responsibility of every hospital to provide quality care by following proper guidelines maintain standard. I would like to discuss my little experience about hand washing that comprise the patient safety under PFCC (Patient and family center care). My clinical leader told me how hand washing rate is also lower than expected in hospital in few previous audits. I also saw one day a doctor came into room to observe the patients on daily basis and gave wound care to the patient as well without washing his hand. My nurse need assistance for change the dressing I did the same mistake.

It was my third week of my placement. Every day our clinical instructor and clinical leader of the unit assigned two patients for routine care expect the medication as we are students, we are not allowed to do medication. Every day we start around 7:30am as morning shift start from 7:30am. All Patients had their breakfast around 9:00am. On the daily basis I started my work from taking vital signs to giving bed bath and changing their clothes in order to make them ready for family visit and for physiotherapy. On that day patient his name is Nobrega was needed change his dressing. I was assisting my other patient. When my nurse calls me for some help without thinking about hand washing, I went for help. At the same time my clinical leader came, and she noticed me. She was little depressed when I just touched the skin around the wound without being washed my hand. She said, we all made mistakes and learn from them. But this experience made me question about patient safety. She told these kinds of small mistake happens but put patient safety in risk and hospital standard as well. She told me they also got less score in hand washing in previous audit because hand washing rate is lower than expected as these kinds of small mistakes happen every day in the hospital indirectly effects the hospital standard when they are getting low score in audit.

Although hand hygiene seems simple, it is a complex cultural change to establish. But it does have the potential to become the cornerstone of a safe, high-quality healthcare system. “80% of hospital staff who dressed wounds infected with methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus carried the organism on their hands for up to three hours”. 220,000 people are aggrieved with healthcare-associated infections in Canada every year This event occurred with just little ignorance and patient safety as well as hospital standard are compromised. There are several theories which have been developed in relation to patient safety and prevention of infection, I have learned since am studying nursing that we can apply in these kinds of situations in hospital settings. From the time of Florence Nightingale till the toady’s modern nursing, it is well known that “Prevention is better than cure”. For instance, hand washing and hand hygiene should be emphasized before and after touching each resident. No matter if we are doctor or nurse as a care provider its our responsibility to protect the patient from any unwanted infection by maintaining proper hand hygiene to provide quality care. I took this as my learning experience to make sure not do these kinds of mistake in my future carrier in nursing in hospitals setting while dealing with patients. Hand hygiene is the single most important factor for infection control and patient safety. Throughout her career, Nightingale proposed a link between cleanliness and disease transmission, although the germ theory of disease was not proven until 1875.

Hospital should arrange regular monthly education program regarding proper hand washing protocol how we can improve patient safety and the score in audit by following these instructions. In future, I will never comprise patient safety with my little mistakes. I will always remember this to use as past concrete experience because this my learning phase as am doing my placement training here. For example, according to Olin “Benner describes five levels of nursing experience: novice, advanced beginner, competent, proficient and expert. The levels reflect a movement from reliance on abstract principles to the use of past concrete experience. Each step builds on the previous one as the learner gains clinical expertise”. After this event, am become more careful how hand washing is very important issue to promote patient safety. As health care provider we are role model for novice nurses, patient and family members as well. If we follow the proper protocol of hospital standard for patient safety, then they can also follow us. Even it’s our responsibility as well to improve the patient safety according to hospital standard. All the PPE’s and hand hygiene lotion were kept in a cart on the entrance of the room. We should use this properly. We can do this very easily with little efforts.

Moving forward, I will always keep patient safety in my mind by maintaining hand hygiene because its also related to hospital standard as well. After writing this paper I feel that reflective writing is a useful approach for nurses to learn from experience. In nursing, self-reflection is very important to acknowledge own strength and limitation and to initiate necessary changes in future to improve the situation and for professional development. Reflection is a professional motivator to “move on and do better within practice” with the goal of learning from experiences and examining oneself. In future, if I will have a similar kind of situation, I will be more alert, while providing any kind of care to patients as I have still 4 weeks for my placement. I would perform better from my previous experience to maintain patient safety.

References

• Canadian Patient Safety Institute. (n. d.). Hand Hygiene. (online)
• College of Nurses of Ontario. (2015). Practice Reflection: Learning from Practice. (online)
• Maxworthy, J. C. (2008). The dirty hands of health care: What would Florence think? (online)
• Olin, J. (2011). 7 Nursing Theories to Practice By. RN Central. (online)