By Peggy McDaniel, BSN, RN
by sergis blog/via Flickr
If I knew then what I know now. In my current nursing role I promote best practices, particularly around reducing bloodstream infections and preventing intravenous medication errors. When I was at the bedside, I did not know what I do now. I now read many articles and studies around infection control and am much more aware of what can be done to reduce risk and improve quality of care. I wonder how many bedside nurses understand the “why” behind the mandate for hand hygiene compliance?
Thirty-four percent compliance. A recent study (here’s a useful summary, and here’s the study abstract) published some dire statistics that only confirm what other studies have shown in recent years: during routine care, clinicians (nurses and doctors) only followed hand hygiene compliance guidelines 34% of the time. Some additional details should not be overlooked as well. Clinicians tended to perform hand hygiene more often after procedures or when exposed to blood. This implies that clinicians are much more concerned with protecting themselves than their patients. Even with much focus on increasing hand hygiene compliance and many dollars being spent on technology to monitor and promote compliance, the statistics reveal that we have a long way to go.
Does our training instill in us the respect we should have for microbes and transmission of microbes? Does theory taught in microbiology classes today take the next step to connect the idea that the “bugs” that cause infection can often be stopped dead by just not passing them along? What do you think? I’d like to know. I went to school over 25 years ago and while I was a staff nurse I always heard the call to wash my hands—but I will admit that the call did not always translate into action. I was busy, there was always one more task to do, and after all, hadn’t I just put on or removed some gloves? Didn’t all of that count? Read the rest of this entry ?
