Background
Hand hygiene is the single most important factor in the prevention and control of infection and is fundamental in protecting patients. Hands can become contaminated by direct contact with patients, indirectly by handling equipment or through contact with the general environment. The risk to the patients and healthcare staff is greatly reduced if staff appropriately decontaminate their hands.
Today hand hygiene is no longer simply good practice or a healthy habit; it has become an essential method of protecting ourselves and our patients. Compliance with recommended hand washing standards and guidelines is today considered by many infection control professionals to be a cornerstone in addressing the challenge of infection control.
It is recommended that staff within a carehome environment wear disposable gloves for a number of different reasons. The reasons include, helping to reduce the risk of healthcare workers acquiring infections from patients, the prevention of infections being transferred from the health-care worker to a patient and the reduction of transient contamination of the hands of personnel by flora that can be transmitted from one patient to another. Disposable gloves should also be worn for contact with blood and body fluids and also during contact with respiratory secretions.
Wearing gloves does not replace the need for hand hygiene and the failure to remove gloves after caring for a patient may lead to transmission of micro-organisations from one patient to another. Education though is a cornerstone for improvement with
hand-hygiene, effective hand hygiene practices will in turn help to reduce morbidity, mortality and the high costs associated with healthcare associated infections within a Carehome setting.
A dramatic increase in glove use has occurred in an effort to prevent transmission of HIV and other bloodborne pathogens from patients to health care workers. Recommendations require gloves be worn during all patient-care activities that may involve exposure to blood or body fluids. The effectiveness of gloves in preventing contamination of health care workers’ hands has been confirmed in several clinical studies.
Preventing heavy contamination of the hands is considered important because handwashing or hand antiseptics may not remove all potential pathogens when hands are heavily contaminated.
“Following a study we observed that if personnel pick the gloves up only by the CUFF END and don the glove prior to patient contact, the organism transfer rate is eliminated or very drastically reduced. While we do not advocate using gloves as a substitute for hand washing, CUFF END removal introduces a secondary control mechanism to reduce infections when personnel bypass other proper infection control procedures. When proper hand/forearm washing is combined with cuff end removal of gloves this is a very effective control measure that literally can prevent organism transfer and subsequent infections.”
Matthew P Maley, MS Shriners Burn Hospital, Cincinnati, Ohio
Hand hygiene is the single most important factor in the prevention and control of infection and is fundamental in protecting patients. Hands can become contaminated by direct contact with patients, indirectly by handling equipment or through contact with the general environment. The risk to the patients and healthcare staff is greatly reduced if staff appropriately decontaminate their hands.
Today hand hygiene is no longer simply good practice or a healthy habit; it has become an essential method of protecting ourselves and our patients. Compliance with recommended hand washing standards and guidelines is today considered by many infection control professionals to be a cornerstone in addressing the challenge of infection control.
It is recommended that staff within a carehome environment wear disposable gloves for a number of different reasons. The reasons include, helping to reduce the risk of healthcare workers acquiring infections from patients, the prevention of infections being transferred from the health-care worker to a patient and the reduction of transient contamination of the hands of personnel by flora that can be transmitted from one patient to another. Disposable gloves should also be worn for contact with blood and body fluids and also during contact with respiratory secretions.
Wearing gloves does not replace the need for hand hygiene and the failure to remove gloves after caring for a patient may lead to transmission of micro-organisations from one patient to another. Education though is a cornerstone for improvement with
hand-hygiene, effective hand hygiene practices will in turn help to reduce morbidity, mortality and the high costs associated with healthcare associated infections within a Carehome setting.
A dramatic increase in glove use has occurred in an effort to prevent transmission of HIV and other bloodborne pathogens from patients to health care workers. Recommendations require gloves be worn during all patient-care activities that may involve exposure to blood or body fluids. The effectiveness of gloves in preventing contamination of health care workers’ hands has been confirmed in several clinical studies.
Preventing heavy contamination of the hands is considered important because handwashing or hand antiseptics may not remove all potential pathogens when hands are heavily contaminated.
“Following a study we observed that if personnel pick the gloves up only by the CUFF END and don the glove prior to patient contact, the organism transfer rate is eliminated or very drastically reduced. While we do not advocate using gloves as a substitute for hand washing, CUFF END removal introduces a secondary control mechanism to reduce infections when personnel bypass other proper infection control procedures. When proper hand/forearm washing is combined with cuff end removal of gloves this is a very effective control measure that literally can prevent organism transfer and subsequent infections.”
Matthew P Maley, MS Shriners Burn Hospital, Cincinnati, Ohio
