Hand Hygiene Saves Lives, But Is It Realistic For All Nurses?

Is proper hand hygiene possible in all healthcare settings? What about the countless nurses, nursing assistants, home health aides, and volunteers who work in long term care, private duty, home health, and community-based settings? Ensuring good hand hygiene for nurses and other healthcare workers who are employed outside the hospital is a complex problem with no easy resolution. Nurses Announcements Archive Article

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You are reading page 2 of Hand Hygiene Saves Lives, But Is It Realistic For All Nurses?

Specializes in Med Surg Travel RN.

Washing your hands before donning and after removing your gloves is a standard practice that should be part of everyone's repertoire... though it would definitely be nice if they were un-powdered, so that you could just use some hand sanitizer and save your hands a bit of wear.

NurseDirtyBird

425 Posts

My SNF DON abhors hand sanitizer and won't allow it to be installed in pt. rooms. I don't think she gets that it's not possible for us to wash our hands 250 times a day. If I washed in and out and every room, that's all I would do all day. Most of us keep our own hand sanitizers with us, in pockets or on the carts.

As far as moisturizers are concerned, before I found Gold Bond Healing cream, I could effectively scratch an itch with the back of my hand. That stuff is the only thing that worked. I tried bringing my own soap to work, changing sanitizers, every cream or lotion I could find. I tried hand protectants like Silicone Glove, and nothing ever worked. Gold Bond worked over-freaking-night. And no, they're not paying me to say this (although if they wanted to, I wouldn't turn it down!).

timmedico

218 Posts

Florence Nightingale seemed to think so. :yes: It would be neat if some grand new technology could someday come into play and make hand hygiene as we know it obsolete...but for now, hand hygiene is realistic, necessary, and crucial to the profession. :)

wooh, BSN, RN

1 Article; 4,383 Posts

Vinyl powdered ones,

Powdered gloves? I had no idea they still made those! How horrible!

Specializes in Med Surg Travel RN.
My SNF DON abhors hand sanitizer and won't allow it to be installed in pt. rooms. I don't think she gets that it's not possible for us to wash our hands 250 times a day. If I washed in and out and every room, that's all I would do all day. Most of us keep our own hand sanitizers with us, in pockets or on the carts.

Perhaps if you found some actual studies concerning its effectiveness, it would help? http://whqlibdoc.who.int/publications/2009/9789241597906_eng.pdf WHO Guidelines

Hand Hygiene Resource Center

Guest343211

880 Posts

I just wanted to comment on the HH/private-duty nurse thing, because in my experience you usually do find the "bar soap from hell" in people's bathrooms. Yes, complete with grimy fingerprints, embedded in a gelatinous funk. Most of us bring pump soap and paper towels. In a pinch, there is dish soap and air/shake drying. I think statistically, there are fewer infections in homecare settings but you are so right about the "variety" out there!

I believe CDC guidelines are to scrub with soap for at least a ful 15 seconds, dry with a clean paper towel, and, especially if the soap that was used (dishwashing liquid or whatever) was not antibacterial soap, you are to f/u by using at least 70% alcohol, rubbing vigorously.

BrandonLPN, LPN

3,358 Posts

If the LTC facility has ample hand sanitizer available, I think it is viable. I have up to 49 residents on 3-11. I manage to sanitize my hands after each med administration, finger stick, vitals check, etc. But that's only because we have a sanitizer dispenser on the med cart and in each room.

If a LTC facility expects it's nurses to wash hands in a sink, proper "by the book" hand hygiene is 100% impossible. It would be stupid to even try to sink-wash your hands every time during a 50 resident med pass. You'd be setting yourself up for a total fail.

Guest343211

880 Posts

My SNF DON abhors hand sanitizer and won't allow it to be installed in pt. rooms. I don't think she gets that it's not possible for us to wash our hands 250 times a day. If I washed in and out and every room, that's all I would do all day. Most of us keep our own hand sanitizers with us, in pockets or on the carts.

As far as moisturizers are concerned, before I found Gold Bond Healing cream, I could effectively scratch an itch with the back of my hand. That stuff is the only thing that worked. I tried bringing my own soap to work, changing sanitizers, every cream or lotion I could find. I tried hand protectants like Silicone Glove, and nothing ever worked. Gold Bond worked over-freaking-night. And no, they're not paying me to say this (although if they wanted to, I wouldn't turn it down!).

Yes, this is what I use too; but I wash and gel so often, I wonder if I am wasting money.

Guest343211

880 Posts

My SNF DON abhors hand sanitizer and won't allow it to be installed in pt. rooms. I don't think she gets that it's not possible for us to wash our hands 250 times a day. If I washed in and out and every room, that's all I would do all day. Most of us keep our own hand sanitizers with us, in pockets or on the carts.

This is ridiculous. They have hand sanitizer devices in convenience stores, movie theaters, and you can't eat or go anywhere without using them on a cruise ship. For good cause, there are people on cruises that literally take the initiative to squirt your hands with alcohol if they see you bypassing the gel delivery devices upon entry into a dining area.

amygarside

1,026 Posts

This article made me stop and consider about this dilemma, well I think that it should really become a habit because this simple process could save many lives.

Specializes in ICU, CVICU, E.R..

It's definitely difficult to keep up with proper hand hygiene in the workplace with out the proper mindset. I have a 4 yr old daughter at home. And everytime I enter or exit a patients room, I have her in my mind.

Yes for me.

well for myself...my hands look horrible. I do the required 3 uses of sanitizer and then a thorough hand washing on entering a pt's room and proper cleansing upon exiting the room. I am a peds RN. I deal with medically fragile infants on some kind of life support.Trachs,drsgs,g-tubes vents. I have yet to have my primary babies have trach or some kind of infection. My babes do not have diaper rashes unless they were d/ced with one.I use gloves as needed. my clients are in home and will need progressive care changes as they grow and thrive. I have my hands in soapy water all the time and now despite skin care for myself I am afraid that there WILL be a study about nurses who look like they have ocd. I have small bottles of "nu-skin" with me at all times and bandaide that look nand act like hydrocollodial dressings.