HEALTHCARE HYGIENE
Supporting our nurses and healthcare workers
Chris Wakefield, Managing Director UK & Ireland at GOJO Industries-Europe, discusses how a good hand hygiene system can protect the skin health of healthcare workers.
The past few months have seen numerous walkouts from a variety of sectors – education, transport, and of course healthcare. The public swell of support has been strong throughout. Cars honking, people joining nurses’ picket lines outside hospitals; in fact, a TUC survey of 1,758 adults showed ‘large-scale support’ for nurses, ambulance staff and other health service workers taking industrial action over pay and staffing.
The polling, conducted by YouGov just before Christmas, found that more than three in five of those diagnosed with a health condition supported workers taking strike action in the NHS. The TUC said the findings showed that people recognise that key workers who got Britain through the pandemic are ‘owed a decent pay rise’.
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inews.co.uk/news/health/nurses-vow-strike-action-poll-patients-health-conditions-support-2095388
As a member of the World Health Organization (WHO) Private Organizations for Patient Safety group, we are committed to supporting nurses and healthcare professionals in other ways too. The nature of their work means that they are often exposed to viruses and infections, so to protect themselves and their patients, hand hygiene is a must.
However, despite understanding why and how to clean their hands, compliance can be problematic. The key to maximising adherence is understanding the most common barriers and introducing measures that address these. In other words, supporting healthcare staff to advance hand hygiene, rather than berating them for the lack of it.
Not enough time
The recent industrial action has really highlighted how short- staffed the nursing profession is, with 47,000 vacancies needing to be filled at present. Unsurprisingly then, ‘not having enough time’ to practise hand hygiene is a reason often cited for non-compliance. This concurs with research we undertook in 2020 with healthcare trusts. Overburdened and stressed staff said that they felt as if they didn’t have time to clean their hands as often as they should.
The ‘bigger conversation’ regarding recruitment and workloads is ongoing, but presently, supplying antimicrobial hand hygiene solutions in small form versions, such as personal bottles of PURELL Advanced Hygienic Hand Rub, can help. This enables healthcare workers to sanitise whilst moving between patients and reduce this lost time.
Occupational skin health
According to the Royal College of Nursing (RCN), frequent hand washing can lead to and exacerbate dry skin issues including contact dermatitis – a painful, debilitating condition which may require nursing staff to be moved out
34 | TOMORROW'S CLEANING of clinical areas due to the risk of infection.
https://www.rcn.org.uk/clinical-topics/Infection-prevention-and-control-advice/Skin-health)
The formulation of hand hygiene solutions is, therefore, critical. Of course, it must have proven efficacy and conform to key hospital norms (EN14476, EN12791, EN1500). However, of equal importance is the effect it has on skin health. Sanitisers and soaps that are enriched with moisturisers and are clinically proven to maintain skin health are vital for settings where repeated handwashing and sanitising are required.
Why? Because if staff enjoy using the products, they will be more likely to use them consistently, which in turn protects them and prevents infection from spreading. A poor experience, on the other hand, will result in the opposite being true.
A specialist partner
Working with a trusted partner can help hospital and healthcare managers identify the challenges and optimise their approach. As well as supplying hand hygiene equipment and solutions, they can help ensure hand hygiene stations are optimally positioned, provide support materials, and even offer RCN-accredited training.
In our darkest hours, we can always rely on nurses and healthcare workers to do their best for us – so supporting them to protect their hands and wider health is the least we can do in return.
www.gojo.com
twitter.com/TomoCleaning
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