Re-Educating Health Care Providers on Hand Hygiene Practice - Essay Example

Hospital Acquired infections (HAIs) present a serious challenge in provision of healthcare services to patients in hospital settings. Studies indicate that about 80 percent of patients who contract HAIs often succumb to the diseases and die while receiving treatment in the hospital (Ivers, et al. 2012). The numbers have since risen up and it has become increasingly difficult for researchers to point to the exact numbers of patients suffering from HAIs. Nevertheless, existing literature has produced a lot of evidence pointing to the role of hand hygiene practices in reducing the rates of HAIs.

However, compliance rates to hand hygiene practices such as hand washing and gelling remain low, which makes it difficult to prevent HAIs. There is also a gap in available literature concerning the impact of specific hand hygiene programs in reducing the rates of HAIs. This project assesses how reeducation can enhance compliance to hand hygiene in hospital settings thereby reducing the rates of HAIs. Hand hygiene encompasses various technics and practices for cleansing hands before and after treating patients.

Several agents such as antiseptic agents, anti-microbial soaps, alcohol based rubs, plain soaps, and antiseptic agents play a critical role in hand hygiene practices. The main underlying factor is that compliance with hand hygiene practices reduces the rates of related infections to a greater extent (Ivers, et al. 2012). However, inadequacies exist in the literature available regarding how to increase compliance with hand hygiene practices before and after attending to each patient according to the guidelines stipulated by the WHO (Dennison & Prevost, 2012).