The Role Of Nurses in Hand Hygiene Practice for Hospital Infection Control

Abstract

Ensuring that all healthcare professionals, including nurses, practice proper hand hygiene in hospital settings is extremely important, as it is a primary measure for preventing and controlling infections. In order to guarantee that nurses understand the important role of hand hygiene and strictly comply with hand hygiene guidelines, it is essential to establish an awareness of the nurse's responsibility in this matter. In addition, nurses are able to figure out the most effective methods for preventing the spread of hand hygiene by acknowledging the challenges that they face. The objective of this study is to identify the responsibilities and difficulties that nurses encounter in hand hygiene compliance in hospital settings. Furthermore, approaches that guarantee effective hand hygiene practices are discussed along with this study.

The data for this literature review were gathered from the CINAHL (ESBCO), Academic Search Complete (ESBCO), ScienceDirect, and PubMed databases. A total of ten articles were chosen for analysis, following predetermined inclusion and exclusion criteria established before conducting the database search. The articles underwent inductive content analysis, and the findings were categorized to address various aspects of the research question. The research question is: "What is the role of nurses regarding hand hygiene and its challenges in controlling infection in hospital settings?" The data analysis revealed ineffective practices, insufficient levels of knowledge and training, and unfavorable attitudes among nurses toward hand hygiene due to a lack of adequate recognition of its importance. At the same time, this study looks at the challenges of nursing management and organization in hand hygiene. Hence, comprehensive approaches are necessary to improve the involvement of nurses and promote hand hygiene compliance in the hospital environment.