Hand hygiene among nurses in Turkey

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Hand hygiene among nurses in Turkey

Health practitioners always get infected by several diseases in their levels of action. Some of these infections result from a myriad of ways. However, the most common is failure to wash hands after attending to patients. In this manner, they end up being infected by the patients. Consequently, they may pass such infections to fellow health practitioners through shaking of hands (Ivanov and Blue, 2007). The research study aimed at determining whether failure to wash hands after attending the patients could be the cause of infection to the health practitioners. The study involved a total of 129 nurses.

Protection of human participants

The study comprised of several participants. A total number of 129 participants were interviewed in the study (Akyol, 2007). This followed the acquisition of an informed consent from the agencies where the study was conducted. Other than the agency, the participants also submitted to the survey. Some participated voluntarily while a good number never seemed to have participated voluntarily during the survey. However, no matter the nature of participation, an informed consent arose from both the participants and the survey agency.

There were several benefits as well as risks to the participants. The authors identified that hand-washing with detergents could prevent the risks of cross-transmission of the infections (Akyol, 2007). This was quite crucial in keeping in check the rate of transmission of such infections between the parties involved. Prevention of such infections also minimizes cases of infection by other related microorganisms. In addition, the researchers noticed that hand cleaning can increase microbial shedding, reduce the lipid content in the skin, as well as increase the transepidermal water loss. This is quite crucial in maintaining the number of infectious microorganisms in the body.

Lastly, the authors identified that hand hygiene was critical to participants since it could lead to increase in skin Ph. This creates unconducive environment to some of the microorganisms, thus, minimizing the infections. However, some risks were also associated with hand washing using detergents. The authors noted that regular hand washing using detergents could damage skin. This was responsible for the irritation felt by the participants (Akyol, 2007). Therefore, the use of alcohol-based formulations was recommended over the use of detergents like soaps to minimize irritations.

Data collection

In data collection, it is of crucial significance to identify the variables. This consists of both the dependent and independent variables. The research survey clearly identified these variables as hand-washing and cleanliness. These were the two major variables identified by the survey. The data used in the survey was collected using closed questionnaire (Akyol, 2007). The questionnaire method was used since all the participants approached agreed to fully participate in the research survey.

Each participant was presented with a questionnaire. Each questionnaire took a minimum of 15 minutes and a maximum of 20 minutes to be completed. This was quite appropriate since it gave ample time for each participant to respond effectively to the questions within the questionnaire. The investigator personally distributed the questionnaires to the nurses in their various departments. This was quite crucial since it ensured all the responses are collected without getting lost along the way. The administration of each questionnaire followed a certain sequence. In total, there were three parts for the administration of the questionnaires.

The first part involved acquiring the demographic information of the respondent. This consisted of the respondent’s age, marital status, education, as well as educational level (Akyol, 2007). Part one of the questionnaire also detailed information concerning the frequency and reasons for or against hand washing, duty at clinic, as well as access to the hand cleaning detergents. The second part detailed the quality of the hand-washing techniques employed by each participant. In this part, the researcher used Fieldmans’ criteria to aid in analyzing the quality. The last part involved relating hand-washing and cleanliness with regards to the different techniques of hand-washing employed by each participant. In this part, the questions raised were in two options namely yes or no, followed by a brief explanation.

However, this research study should have employed other methods of data collection other than questionnaires alone. The use of closed questions could also lead to biasness since they guide the respondents. In this manner, there could be biasness since the such questions reflect what the investigator has in mind. This is depicted by the time duration provided for each questionnaire with regards to the number and content of each question. Therefore, the investigator ought to conduct open interviews with the respondents alongside issuing questionnaires. This might help in minimizing the levels of biasness.

Data management and analysis

Data management is always critical in research activities. It is notable to highlight that data analysis is always the most important in data management. This follows that all results in the report depend on the outcomes from the data analysis. The data entry and analysis was done using Excel and SPSS software respectively (Akyol, 2007). The tools used for analysis include parametric tests and descriptive. In the analysis, statistical significance with a P-Value of < 0.005 was realized following comparison of variables. The software was used to ensure accuracy of the analysis.

However, the author fails to highlight completely how the rigor process was assured. This follows that the author fails to show how he maintained a paper trail of all the analysis processes employed. In addition, the author fails to depict how researcher-biasness was minimized. Even though qualified personnel analyzed the data, there is no likelihood that a comparison of the results was done. This means that maybe only one researcher analyzed the data and provided the results. Therefore, here could have been some levels of biasness in the results that may have influenced the report.

Interpretation of the findings

The research depicted that the nurses had poor qualities with regards to hand-washing. In addition, the author also deduced that the nurses experience difficulties in washing their hands in clinical areas. This may be true since several nurses may not see the sense of washing their hands because they mostly wear hand gloves when attending to the patients. In the survey, the researchers identified several limitations regarding the poor hand hygiene by the nurses. First, they noted that the inadequacy of operational materials as well as dense working conditions hindered the frequent washing of hands (Akyol, 2007). In addition, the soaring of hands after washing with soaps discouraged most nurses from washing their hands.

However, it is significant o note that the author presented the findings in a very coherent manner. The findings from this survey are very important to all sectors of nursing. Therefore, they can be applied in very any areas of nursing. This will create awareness as well as educate the nurses on several issues touching on cleanliness and infections. Even though this survey was done and results reported, further survey is still necessary. Further studies are critical in exploring and providing credible comparisons based on the practices. This helps in broadening the knowledge on the field, thus enhancing the levels of hygiene, as well as minimize incidences of infections.

References

Akyol, A. D. (2007). Hand Hygiene among nurses in Turkey: options and practices. Journal of Clinical Nursing 16, 431-437.

Ivanov, L. L., & Blue, C. L. (2007). Public health nursing: Leadership, policy, & practice. Australia: Delmar Cengage Delmar.