Non-Compliance With Hand Hygiene to Nosocomial Infections

Non-Compliance With Hand Hygiene to Nosocomial Infections
Student’s Name
Professor’s Name
Institutional Affiliations
Course Name and Number
Due Date
Non-Compliance With Hand Hygiene to Nosocomial Infections
Introduction
Hand Hygiene (HH) compliance has remained a fundamental component in preventing hospital-acquired infections (HAIs). Chen et al. (2020) confirm that HH is the central strategy through which healthcare providers effectively prevent their patients from contracting HAIs. As a result, many healthcare facilities emphasize the importance of this practice in averting diverse HAIs and improving patient healthcare outcomes. According to Fox et al. (2015), the United States healthcare system struggles with up to 2.5 million nosocomial infections annually. Magill et al. (2018) acknowledge that healthcare providers can prevent these illnesses by embracing the appropriate HH behavior while caring for the patients. Creating a healthcare environment that prioritizes this practice in all circumstances and promotes it among healthcare practitioners and patients establishes the foundation for combating HAIs in hospital settings. However, evidence from diverse research reveals that HAIs have remained persistent in the nation due to the underlying challenges that lead to non-compliance.
Despite decades of advocacy to adhere to specific HH, non-compliance among healthcare workers persists. Trends established by Chen et al. (2020) reveal that healthcare facilities have struggled with fluctuating compliance with standardized HH among their practitioners, including nurses whose interactions with patients are significantly high during routine care delivery. The consequence is that healthcare facilities are struggling with diminishing quality of care due to undesirable statistics. For instance, a higher number of HAIs every year risks approximately 90,000 mortality rates, creating a negative image of the condition of healthcare facilities (Fox et al., 2015). Haverstick et al. (2017) further warn that the higher the number of patients presenting with HAIs extends the diverse resources within a facility, making it challenging for nurses to meet other healthcare needs of their patients due to increased work-related stress. These outcomes are worrying because of their adverse impacts on the overall quality of care.
Improvements in compliance seem to have remained persistently low in many healthcare facilities. For instance, statistics reveal that since Semmelweis emphasized the clinical importance of HH, researchers have been reporting consistently low compliance rates of lesser than 40% in healthcare facilities (Chen et al., 2020). The author raises diverse questions about the various factors that influence the compliance rate among healthcare providers, including the availability of resources,...