Poor hand hygiene in hospital settings is linked to several factors. First, many healthcare workers fail to wash their hands as frequently or thoroughly as required between care delivery episodes. Secondly, some nurses and other personnel wear artificial fingernails that harbor germs associated with infections observed in patients. Third, the antibacterial soaps that are generally used for hand washing are often regarded by healthcare workers as excessively harsh; while alcohol-based gels are now available, only a limited number of institutions have turned to these products to encourage hand washing. This report will examine these issues.
Noting that nosocomial infection continues to impact upon about two million U.S. hospital patients each year despite significant advances made in the prevention and control of infectious disease, Earl, Jackson, and Rickman (2001) commented that it is important to achieve improved rates of compliance with hand antisepsis guidelines in order to reduce the incidence of this problem. The researchers said that it is common knowledge that the hands of health care workers can carry disease-causing organisms from one patient to another, making hand antisepsis before and after every patient contact crucial to the prevention and control of nosocomial infections. Nevertheless, numerous studies have demonstrated that rates of compliance with hand antisepsis procedures fall within the range of 10 to 20 percent and, further, that physicians wash their hands much less frequently than do nurses (19 to 28 percent of the time versus 43 to 63 percent of the time, respectively).
Earl, Jackson, and Rickman (2001) stated that a number of different products, including alcohol-based gels, are now available as an alternative to soap and water for hand antisepsis. Earl, et al (2001) concluded based on the results of their study that the introduction of a rinse-free, alcohol-based gel in well-situated dispense...