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“Just Clean Your Hands” Case Study

How would you feel if your negligence leads to the death of your most valued family member, friend, or relative? Accordingly, every individual must strive to embrace ethical behaviours and duly execute their roles and responsibilities to encourage the wellbeing of other people in the community.

Unfortunately, humans tend to learn from mistakes which could attract detrimental consequences. For example, in the 19th century, many women in Europe succumbed to childbed fever during delivery periods (Case Study 19). Luckily, an appropriate intervention by a brilliant doctor called Dr. Ignaz Semmelweis led to a drastic reduction in the number of deaths. Precisely, Semmelweis commanded every medical staff and student to wash their hands before attending to women in labour. As a result, the mortality rate among delivering women dropped to under one percent (Case Study 20). Therefore, several lives perished before healthcare management discovered the cause and solution to the rampant deaths among mothers. Hence, healthcare management must remain vigilant and proactive in identifying and preventing potential risks.

Although hand-washing proves to be one of the most effective ways through which humans can prevent communicable diseases, some individuals and institutions do not exhibit a hundred percent compliance to practice (Case Study 22). As a result, healthcare-associated infections (HAI) have been common in various parts of the globe. For instance, Canada experienced more than 250, 000 cases of HAI with over 8,000 deaths per year from the infections. Consequently, Canada spent millions of money in handling the HAI (Case Study 20). Hence, healthcare facilities should endeavour to ensure a hundred percent compliance with the hand-washing policy that the Center for Disease Control and Prevention claims to prevent the spread of diseases effectively. Canada, and probably other nations, could not have encountered many cases of HAI, related deaths and expenditure of huge amounts of money on treating the sick had it adopted the policy.

Unluckily, manly healthcare providers tend not to comply with the hand-washing policy even after learning on the importance of the practice and vigorous campaigns. In 2009, only 39 percent of doctors and 65 percent of nurses embraced hand-washing practice. (……Image……( https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http%3A%2F%2Fimages.smh.com.au%2F2009%2F10%2F18%2F797040%2Fwashingcomplaince-graphic-420×0.jpg&imgrefurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.tapatalk.com%2Fgroups%2Foneworldtalk%2Faussie-doctors-don-t-wash-hands-often-risk-of-infe-t2879.html&tbnid=Ilw7duK3qk1Q0M&vet=10CIABEDMoogFqFwoTCKj9tsuFg-gCFQAAAAAdAAAAABAC..i&docid=oqPZFvb5oWAtLM&w=420&h=319&q=images%20for%20infections%20from%20not%20washing%20hands&ved=0CIABEDMoogFqFwoTCKj9tsuFg-gCFQAAAAAdAAAAABAC)) ( intext citation: Wallace). Therefore, it is ethically wrong for a nation and its healthcare facilities to allow the spread of infections by not embracing particular strategies that have been tested and proven to be effective in handling contagious infections.

Furthermore, disease-causing microorganisms that are linked with HAI are highly-challenging and difficult to be contained. First, such pathogens exhibit high-resistance to antibiotics. Consequently, the pathogens could lead to more deaths as well as massive costs of research, treatment and care for patients. Besides, some of the microorganisms can survive in harsh environments for more extended periods of up to sixty minutes. Subsequently, there are high chances that pathogens come in contact with more people. As a result, more infections could overwhelm healthcare facilities. Thus, concerned authorities should endeavour to prevent the spread of the diseases to gain better reputations and trust from the public and remain highly-effective and efficient in treating patients suffering from ailments they contracted outside their facilities.

Also, it is hurting and demoralizing to learn that an individual could contract new diseases by visiting healthcare facilities. Instead of treating patients as usual, healthcare facilities would turn out to be the origin of further infections by not embracing hand-washing practices. Besides, healthy people, including healthcare providers, medical students, managers and persons visiting the sick at hospitals could become victims of HAI when hand-washing is not practised. Healthcare staff inevitably come in contact with patients because they could be physically examining them or administering drugs (Case Study 20). Subsequently, the healthcare staff could transmit more deadly pathogens to patients who were initially suffering from acute infections. Although healthcare providers could be unaware of the pathogens, they would be held accountable for the consequences of their actions.

On the contrary, healthcare providers could contract infections from patients. Subsequently, sick healthcare staff would remain less effective and inefficient while delivering relevant services. As part of the management team, therefore, the Board of Governors should strive to ensure a healthy and safe work environment for its employees, patients and visitors to promote better service provision.

As responsible parties, local authorities, especially the Board of Governors for healthcare facilities, should strive to ensure a hundred percent compliance with the policy of hand-washing to prevent HAI. In the long-run, healthcare facilities, local authorities and governments would save lots of money that could otherwise be used to treat new infections, contact further research with regards to the development of antibiotics and establishment of more healthcare facilities. Moreover, the interested parties would not incur substantial expenses in the short-term since the practice of hand-washing demand relatively limited and less-costly resources such as sterilizers, antiseptics and disinfectants. However, additional efforts should be employed to ensure that every healthcare staff, medical student, visitors and other relevant persons wash their hands before coming in contact with patients and their environments. Specifically, more punitive measures should be developed and implemented against individual who breaches the policy. Therefore, the Board of Governors should adequately exercise their mandate and responsibilities of ensuring orderly and operating healthcare facilities where applicable rules and regulations are strictly adhered to by all the concerned parties.

Overall, hand-washing serves as an effective way through which healthcare facilities would discourage the spread of contagious diseases. Unfortunately, a hundred percent compliance of the policy is yet to be achieved. Therefore, concerned authorities, including the Board of Governors, should invest reasonably in ensuring that adequate resources for hand-washing practices are available. Besides, additional efforts should be employed to ensure strict adherence to the policy. Since it is relatively cheap and highly-beneficial for healthcare facilities to implement the strategy, the Board of Governors should use their powers and authority to ensure a hundred percent compliance.

Works Cited

Case Study

Wallace, Natasha. “In The Wash-Up, Doctors Forget About Hygiene”. The Sydney Morning Herald, 2009, https://www.smh.com.au/national/in-the-washup-doctors-forget-about-hygiene-20091018-h303.html.