Effectiveness of Hand Hygiene in Preventing HAI

Research Critique Guidelines – Part II
Use this document to organize your essay. Successful completion of this assignment requires that you provide a rationale, include examples, and reference content from the studies in your responses.
Quantitative Studies
Picot question: What is the effectiveness of hand hygiene in preventing hospital-acquired infections in intensive care units among nurses and patients?
Background
1 Summary of studies. Include problem, significance to nursing, purpose, objective, and research question.
The article by Haverstick et al. (2017) seeks to investigate whether patients’ hand hygiene can be enhanced as well as whether the enhancement of patients’ education on the importance of hand hygiene. The problem, as identified in the article, is to seek to prevent HAIs. The researchers believe that the hand hygiene of patients is just as important as that of the health workers. Therefore, it seeks to determine whether HAIs can be reduced if hand hygiene protocol changes for patients with more patients being sensitized. The significance to nursing is quite obvious since the improvement of hand hygiene directly correlates to reducing HAIs. The research question for the study was whether “increased access to hand hygiene products and patient education could improve patients’ hand hygiene and reduce the transmission of HAIs.”
On the other hand, the study by Fox et al. (2015) sought to establish whether introducing a new hand hygiene protocol can help reduce HAIs and enhance or improve nurses’ hand hygiene behaviors. The study was acting on the notion that patients happen to be at a greater risk of developing HAIs. However, nurses can also be agents of transmission of these HAIs, if they are not complying with the hygiene protocols. Therefore, this study seeks to reduce HAIs through enhanced patients’ hand hygiene and enhanced nurses’ handwashing compliance. The significance of this study to nursing is just as obvious as the first study because this also seeks to investigate a protocol that can be employed in a hospital setting and yield positive results. While a direct research question may not guide it, the purpose is quite clear as it looks to determine a way of reducing HAIs in the intensive care unit.
How do these two articles support the nurse practice issue you chose?
1 Discuss how these two articles will be used to answer your PICOT question.
Haverstick et al.’s (2017) study offers a direct response to the PICOT question identified. This article will be used to answer the PICOT question by providing results of whether significant correlations were showcased between an enhanced patient hand hygiene protocol and the rate of HAIs. Further, the study will be used to inform whether patients were more educated or understood the importance of hand hygiene protocols in the fight to prevent HAIs.
Fox et al.’s (2015) study also offers a direct answer to the PICOT question. The study will illuminate the effect of a patient-centered hand hygiene protocol and its impact on reducing HAIs. Further, it will offer details as to whether nurses are becoming more compliant with handwashing standards set in the intensive care unit.
2 Describe how the interventions and comparison groups in the articles compare to those identified in your PICOT question.
The major difference between the PICOT question and the intervention and comparison groups in the two studies is that both articles focused on the effectiveness of hand hygiene in reducing HAIs among patients, but the PICOT question focuses on both the patients and nurses. Nevertheless, both articles do present crucial details that can help inform or help answer the PICOT question, albeit in part.
Method of Study:
1 State the methods of the two articles you are comparing and describe how they are different.
In Haverstick et al.’s (2017) study, surveys were used to collect the data th...