Hand washing in home setting helps in preventing spread of germs and maintaining proper health. The importance of performing hand hygiene is something that is reinforced by different home care and hospice management. It occurs from the time where there is an initial orientation to approaches where there are supervisory visits.
Clinical Practice Issue Promoting Research
There are complaints from clinicians and patients when in a home setting that hand washing practices are not followed to the later. The negative incidences highlight the fact that clinicians in a home setting neglect on the issues of hand washing or they are not educated on how to effectively engage in hand washing practices. These aspects results to detrimental effects in the home setting such as spread of germs and deterioration of patient health. Over the years, the incidences where home care and hospice clinicians are complying with the standards of handwashing have been increasing in society ( Yen, 2019) . Third party surveys were conducted and it was reported that nurses were not complying with the requirements whereby they were supposed to wash their hands before interacting with the patients.
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Review of Literature and Findings
The handwashing techniques are commonly taught with regards to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines. Hospice clinicians have to adhere to these guidelines to prevent the spread of germs through the hands.
The first step is to ensure individuals are wetting their hands with water
The second process indicates that individuals should apply the amount of product recommended by manufacturers. The application is on their hands. After that, one should vigorously rub their hands for approximately 15 seconds. The hand and finger surfaces should be totally covered in this process ( Winter, 2019) .
The third step involves rinsing the hands. It should be done by putting hands on a disposable towel to dry the hands. The aim of using a towel is to turn off the faucet.
Handwashing techniques using alcohol
It should be understood that alcohol is also a sanitizer that can be used in hand washing processes when soap is absent. Hence, if an individual is using alcohol as a rub product on their hands, the following instructions should be adhered to.
The volume of product that is recommended by the manufacturer should be applied on the human hand or palms ( Yen,2019)
The hands have to be rubbed together vigorously to cover all the areas of the hands and fingers. The process should be done until the product is dry.
The recommended time frame to rub the hands together according to the CDC is fifteen seconds. However, home cares and also the hospice clinicians perform these steps in much slower timeframe Hand washing and hygiene have to be limited to fifteen seconds. Still, the process can extend to 20 seconds or even beyond. The second aspect that home care individuals should concentrate on while doing the activity is the word vigorous. When engaging in hand hygiene, hands should be rubbed vigorously ( Quilab, Johnson & Schadt, 2019) . Failure to adhere to vigorous rubbing of the hands will lead to having the transient microorganisms being present at the human hands. These are the microorganisms that are transmitted and later cause illness to humans. However, the vigorous handwashing technique ensures that the microorganisms are removed through the process, and when hands are dried, there are no germs found.
When one is performing the handwashing technique using alcohol, then hands should dry after twenty seconds. However, if they dry in less time, it means that there might be a less sufficient amount of the recommended product used in the process. Alcohol is supposed to kill the microorganisms in the pores for close to twenty seconds. Regardless, compliance with these techniques results in success in handwashing and preventing the spread of germs using the hands ( Nair, Hanumantappa, Hiremath, Siraj & Raghunath, 2014) . Research and CDC findings indicate that performing hand washing using alcohol is the most effective way that can be applied to reduce the microorganisms found on the human hand and skin. Furthermore, it is acceptable and even preferred to use alcohol sanitizers frequently during hand washing processes while at home. However, when hands are physically soiled, then alcohol sanitizers are less preferred. Moreover, when the hospice clinicians are caring for patients who have been diagnosed with Clostridium difficile, then hand washing using alcohol sanitizers should be avoided.
Contribution to Nursing Practice
The research will contribute to the nursing practice by enduring that nurses have the right skills and knowledge when it comes to hand washing in the home setting. It will promote proper practices to use in hand washing mechanisms and minimize the spread of microorganisms in the human body ( Manomenidis, Panagopoulou & Montgomery, 2019 ) . Conducting the review on handwashing also contributes to the nursing practice as it helps in the identification of the challenges that hinder effective hand washing techniques and promote the establishment of solutions to improve on these loopholes. Hence, there will be a positive reputation created between the nurses and patients in the home setting environment.
Conclusion
Education and awareness creation is an important intervention strategy that allows individuals to have the right knowledge and skills in handwashing mechanisms. The clinicians in home settings will adhere to these practices and ensure that they use the recommended substance, and hand washing is done within the recommended time frame to improve on the hygiene. In most cases, challenges of compliance emerge because individuals have limited knowledge and understanding about handwashing practices. However, if they gain the relevant skills at the right time, then compliance mechanisms will be achieved when handling hand washing in home settings.
References
Manomenidis, G., Panagopoulou, E., & Montgomery, A. (2019). Job burnout reduces hand hygiene compliance among nursing staff. Journal of patient safety , 15 (4), e70-e73.
Nair, S. S., Hanumantappa, R., Hiremath, S. G., Siraj, M. A., & Raghunath, P. (2014). Knowledge, attitude, and practice of hand hygiene among medical and nursing students at a tertiary health care centre in Raichur, India. ISRN preventive medicine , 2014 .
Quilab, M. T., Johnson, S., & Schadt, C. (2019). The effect of education on improving hand hygiene compliance among healthcare workers. Hos Pal Med Int Jnl , 3 (2), 66-71.
Winter, G. (2019). Good hand hygiene practice: improvements and strategies. Practice Nursing , 30 (4), 144-145.
Yen, P. (2019). Hospital Acquired Infection Reduction with Hand Washing Compliance. Lynchburg Journal of Medical Science , 2 (1), 54.
