"Medscape Medical News is reporting on a survey from the World Health Organization (WHO) showing that almost 50 percent of healthcare workers around the globe are not washing their hands before providing care to a patient”  http://www.infectioncontroltoday.com/   

“Currently, hand washing or hand hygiene rates in the United States average 40 percent to 60 percent “on a good day,” says Robert Weinstein, M.D., from Cook County Hospital in Chicago, and that appears to be the historic norm.  According to most experts, more than half to three-quarters of all nosocomial infections could be prevented if healthcare workers strictly followed hand washing procedures.” http://www.americansmadandangry.org

 While reading an insert from Bottom Line Medicine: A Layman’s Guide to Evidence Based Practice, by Richard Stanak I reviewed that hand hygiene is one of  the simplest procedures to prevent cross transmission of microorganism, which in turn reduces the rate of HAIs. So why are healthcare personnel not recognizing this as one of the most important measures to prevent HAIs?

Hypothetically, as a staff nurse I could have 60 interactions with patients each day not including family or friends of the patients. Proper hand-washing technique should consist of approx. 1-2 minutes each time I interact with a patient, this equates to 1-2 hours of hand-washing each day. Nurses know we usually do not have an extra 1-2 hours each day, who are we kidding?

Some reasons I believe healthcare personnel do not always follow infection control policy are:

• Availability of sufficient and appropriate equipment
• Inconvenient placement of hand-washing facilities
• Allergies or intolerance to hand hygiene solutions
• Lack of knowledge
• Lack of leadership form senior staff to enforce infection protocols
• Laziness
• Heavy workloads/ high census
• Understaffing
• Forgetfulness
• Ignorance of guidelines

Obviously we have to do better! What steps could be taken to ensure infection control compliance?