Hygiene
Hygiene is the practice of maintaining a high level of sanitation to have good health and preventing diseases. Although hospitals optimize their ability to create a clean environment and maintain a high level of hygiene, there are still some infections that arise. These hospital-acquired infections often come from bacteria and fungal pathogens. The world health organization in 2009 concluded that the most common way pathogens transmit in hospitals is through contaminated hands of health staff. The objective of most of the hospitals is to establish an environment that would inhibit the presence, transmission, growth, and development of disease-causing organisms. Advanced research to come up with methodologies and practices that would attain such an objective has been done. A comparison to ascertain the method to assimilate is also essential in coming up with a proper evaluation. The use of soap and alcohol-based hand rubs are some of the procedures established. The following is a qualitative approach to clearly show which practice is more effective in preventing hospital-acquired infections.
Soap is more common in hospitals than alcohol-based hand rubs since the cost factor favors the acquisition of soap. Although this is the case, there should be a proper and effective method in place. By the use of time as a parameter to depict quality, it is possible to come up with an evaluation that alcohol-based hand rubs are more effective than soap. It is said that time is money. It takes less time to use alcohol-based hand rubs than in the use of soap.
It is essential to consider how the arrival of the conclusion comes. The criteria consider diverse groups of individuals that include intra-individual trials, controlled clinical trials, and randomized controlled trials. Afterward, there was a statistical meta-analysis of the data to avoid any biases in the data.
The effectiveness of erasing pathogens comes in favor of alcohol-based hand wash. The ingredients contained in alcohol-based hand wash has the capability of removing bacteria and pathogens. Also, it has been determined that there is a more effective combination of the proportion of the ingredients used to make the alcohol-based hand wash. 61% of ethanol provides a significant efficiency in the eradication of pathogens. Ethanol is an antiseptic with an antibacterial property since It kills disease-causing organisms by denaturing their proteins. The proteins are the building blocks of deoxyribonucleic acid. The percentage of ethanol in the alcohol-based hand rub optimizes the ability of ethanol as an antiseptic because of the osmotic pressure. Ethanol also causes dehydration to cells by disrupting the osmotic balance.
Also, the alcohol-based hand rubs are more effective in combating hospital-acquired infections since it irritates less. The hand rubs are designed in a way that they behave like liquids. They can penetrate to corners and tight spots within the hand without much application of force. They are also smooth, reducing irritation.
From these evaluations, it is possible to deduce that the alcohol-based hand rubs are more effective in combating hospital-acquired infections than soap. It is therefore recommended to use alcohol-based hand rubs since it offers better results.
Summary.
Hospitals need to come up with methods of eradicating hospital-acquired infections. The world health organization report of 2009 suggested that most of the hospital-acquired infection transmission occurs through the hands of medical practitioners. There is thus a need to solve the issue by making sure that the sides of medical practitioners are infection-free. The methods used in washing hands involve the use of soap and alcohol-based hand rubs — a comparison of how effective the two ways are to provide an
of the technique to assimilate. Through a qualitative approach, alcohol-based hand rubs are more effective than soap since it irritates less, requires less time, and effectively removes microorganisms.