HANDWASHING Flashcards
- Referred as “nosocomial” or “hospital” infection”
- Infection occurs during process of care in hospital or other health-care facility w/c not present or incubating at time of admission.
- Includes infection acquired in health-care facility but appearing after discharge,
- Also, occupational infections among health-care workers of the facility
Health Care-associated Infection (HCAI)
Hands Flora
- Resident flora
- Transient Flora
- Hands are the most common vehicle to transmit health care-associated pathogens
- Transmission of health care-associated pathogens from one patient to another via health-care workers hands requires 5 sequential steps
Hand transmission
o Superficial
o Transferred with case to and from hands
o Important cause of cross infection
o Easily removed with good hand hygiene
- Transient Flora
o Deep seated
o Difficult to remove
o Part of body’s natural defense mechanism
o Associated with infection following surgery/invasive procedures.
- Resident flora
– most common sites of health care-associated infection
and the risk factors underlying the occurrence of infections
Lack of hand hygiene
Urinary catheter, Urinary invasive procedures
Advanced age
Severe underlying disease
Urolitiasis
Pregnancy
Diabetes
o Urinary tract infections (34%)
5 stages of hand transmission
- Germs present
- Germ transfer
- Germs survive
- hands remaining contaminated
- hands transmit
Inadequate antibiotic prophylaxis, Incorrect surgical skin preparation,
Inappropriate wound care
Surgical intervention duration
Type of wound
Poor surgical asepsis
Diabetes
Nutritional state
Immunodeficiency
Lack of training and supervision
o Surgical Site Infections (17%)
Mechanical ventilation, Aspiration, Nasogastric tube
Central nervous system depressants
Antibiotics and anti-acids
Prolonged health-care facilities stay
Malnutrition
Advanced age
Surgery
Immunodeficiency
o Lower respiratory tract infection (13%)
5 moments for hand hygiene
- Before touching a patient
- Before clean/aseptic procedure
- After body fluid exposure risk
- After touching a patient
- After touching patient surroundings
Vascular catheter, Neonatal age, Critical care
Severe underlying disease
Neutropenia
Immunodeficiency
New invasive technologies ‘
Lack of training and supervision
o Blood infections (14%)
o With alcohol-based handrub
o Preferred routine method if hands are not visibly soiled to effectively reduce the growth of germs on hands, hand rubbing must be performed by following all of the illustrated steps. This takes only 20 to 30 seconds.
- Hand rubbing
Essential elements of hand washing
- Soap
- Water
- Friction
o With soap & water
o Essential when hands are visibly dirty or visibly soiled
- Handwashing
- Process of reducing the number of microorganism except bacterial spores, on inanimate objects to a level that they can’t produce infection
Disinfection
Types of hand washing
- Social handwashing
- Medical handwashing
- Surgical handwashing
- agents, such as heat, irradiation or chemical for disinfections by destroying, neutralizing or inhibiting the growth of disease-carrying microorganisms.
- Not sporicidal but maybe sporostatic
Disinfectants
- Process by which all pathogens are destroyed, including the spores.
- Methods include physical and chemical sterilization.
Sterilization
o Characterized by the absence of pathogenic microbes.
o Practice Aseptic Technique
Asepsis
o Are products that destroy or inhibit the growth of microorganisms in or on
living tissue
- Antiseptic Agents
Methods of Sterilization
- Physical methods
- Chemical Methods
- Mechanical Methods
