Hand Hygiene assignment on the Role played by clean hands towards overall hygiene and good health

Question

Task: How to establish hygiene living standards using Hand Hygiene assignment research techniques?

Answer

Introduction
This Hand Hygiene assignment investigates the role of hand sanitation towards overall good health. Infections in patients are usually caused by the entry of germs into the human body. Bacteria, viruses, parasites, and fungi are usually the main source of infections. These microorganisms are present everywhere and contaminate food, water, and air, and are even found on our bodies which increases the risk of infection. Endogenous flora and pathogens can be said to be an example of microorganisms that causes health issues as they are present in the environment in a higher amount. Hygiene can be considered a way that allows humans to overcome infections caused by these microorganisms (Lawson &Vaganay-Miller, 2019). Hygiene is taken as one of the most necessary activities by healthcare workers and patients for keeping these microorganisms away from spreading further infection, if this practice is not done in a healthcare organisation there are higher chances of spreading infectious diseases among vulnerable patients. From the Hand Hygiene assignment research it is clear that Hand hygiene is one of the most necessary activities as it keeps germs away and minimizes consumption of harmful bacteria and viruses which reduces infections. Health and hygiene care practices such as showering hygiene, washing hands, and dental hygiene can be practiced to prevent illness and the spreading of diseases. The Australian Guidelines by NHMRC provided protocols for both the Prevention and Management of Infections in Health Care and highlight the key features of infection control and prevention by concentrating on basic concepts and priority areas for intervention (Palagyi et al., 2019).

Hand hygiene is taken as a primary measure in an organisation that looks after organisational risks which are associated with the risks of spreading infections to ensure the safety of employees, hand hygiene is considered one of the most essential needs which allows preventing the spreading of diseases through being contaminated with microorganisms. Hand hygiene is important for assessing the prevention of healthcare-association infections in all subacute settings for long-term care facilities. Long-term care in a healthcare facility can share values and live in close proximity and have close relations with nursing staff and other residents. The study will assess and evaluate different factors affecting.The hand hygiene compliances influenced as low as 11 to 26% (Kelcikova et al., 2019). Therefore, to effectively emerge from the present crisis and most challenging situation in a quite stable position, the workplace authority should be able to address the core challenges that can impact other areas of business for the effective achievement of success in the work area. Above all this, there is the need for effective leadership that would generate healthier and more inclusive workplace areas for the people of the workplace.

Part 1: BACKGROUND AND CONTEXT
The Hand Hygiene assignment study aims to highlight the key issues, gaps, or weaknesses that are being practised by the people in this current workplace, along with the guidelines of IPC for managing these key issues effectively in the workplace.

According to Australian hand hygiene programs, Hand hygiene compliance auditing assessed the conduction of effectiveness of this program as of the National Hand hygiene initiative (NHHI) (Gould et al., 2018). Meanwhile, these guidelines are also being focussed on healthcare facilities and healthcare workers for developing detailed princess and protocols, and the process is controlled and specific to the local settings. This approach is always underpinned by the framework of risk management and for ensuring that the basic principles of settings of healthcare can be easily applied to several healthcare settings and including every hospital and setting of healthcare (Banks & Phillips, 2021). In both public and private sectors of Australian hospitals, AHMAC consisted of endorsement of 80% benchmark.

According to guidelines of Australia for preventing diseases, are being co-founded by the medical research and national health council on the quality and safety of healthcare in Australia. Researcher has sort out that this different guidelines has stated that the Patients of hospitals as well as workers of an organisation must be engaged with hygiene to ensure health and fitness (Vermeil et al., 2019). Organizations must provide options for employees to maintain hand hygiene through organizing products such as hand wipes, sanitizers, soaps, room sanitizers, and sanitization of toilets and surfaces of the organisation. This will allow employees to enjoy a healthier working environment.

The risk associated with maintaining hand hygiene in a subacute setting has been identified when many staff members within the organisations have fallen into the trap of sickness resulting from infection due to working in an unhygienic subacute setting for prolonged hours (Lee et al., 2019). The unhygienic workplace situation can be a result of a lack of knowledge due to which the organization had a lack of hygiene practices such including lack of toilet and surface hygiene, unavailable options for sanitizing and soaps, due to which infects are easily transferred to one infected individual to another individual causing the spread of infection which results in prolonged sickness among staffs.

From the Hand Hygiene assignment research, rapid change in the organisational environment is considered to be the key issue that the organisation is struggling with. The appropriate combination of flexible and permanent employees has been the most important factor in being on track. The most critical matter confronting the organization is the formation of an adequate human resource management team. Effective leadership would bring the issue of hand hygiene under control. (Alegbeleye, 2020). An appropriate human resource manager allows an organisation to maintain stability in hand hygiene among the staff of an organisation. The human resource manager is responsible to spread hygiene awareness among employees and weak leadership will result in weak hand hygiene management causing instability in staff complying with hand hygiene. Hence it can be concluded that human resource management plays the most vital role in managing hand hygiene in an organisation.

Hillier (2020) stated that hand hygiene must have to be taken seriously so that it can cause no harm.
Hand hygiene of Australia provided resources and services for important implementation of hand hygiene initiatives programs and supporting the education of the health care workers it is important to support hand hygiene for health care prevention.
Infection, prevention, and control are considered to be the Hand Hygiene assignmentevidence-based and practical approaches that can prevent people from being harmed by various avoidable infections (Singh et al., 2020). Therefore, there is a need for improvement in the current practice and strategies for understanding the various potential challenges that need to be based on the guidelines of the IPC for coping with this uncertain situation (Palagyi et al., 2019). For the effective organisation of the various considerations of the present practice and policies in the workplace of multiple ways in which the pandemic situation is considered to impact the workplace in every aspect.

The people of the workplace are considered to be more worried about the safety and health of the people as well as the progression in the profession and the various household responsibilities. There is a need for various policies to be implemented to address certain potential challenges that can be highlighted by the diverse group (Kelcikova et al., 2019). Hence, this Hand Hygiene assignment advices that to ensure the safety of patients, it is extremely important to ensure that their rooms and equipment are being sanitised thoroughly. But in this context, the most significant issue that needs to be considered carefully is that the people of the workplace are not ready to adapt to the changes to make the entire process of improvement quite effective. The people are considered to be quite reluctant about the consequences of this inadequate management of hand hygiene, especially in subacute settings and quite resistant to the changes the organisation needs to make. Therefore, the people in the workplace are considered to be flexible with the guidance of effective leadership strategies and human resources strategies for making the entire process quite effective.

Part 2: Hand Hygiene assignment STRATEGY
Therefore, after considering the various issues in the workplace, the major gaps that have been identified can be considered to include the;

Safety of the employees
For employees hand hygiene is important including patients and health workers can reduce the spread of the infection, controlling the risk of bacterial mutations and, therefore, it helps to rescue antimicrobial resistance, which makes health care effective and efficiently.

Competitiveness and diversities
Further, to stay competitive and accept diversity, the people of the organisation should be utmostly prioritised. Competitiveness and diversities regarding Maintaining hygiene can enhance awareness among individuals. Good hand hygiene can increase the rate of productivity and remove germs and bacterias another thing to be considered carefully is the acceptance of diversity among the employees of the organisation, which needs to be more inclusive in all respects.

Effective management of technology
Technological advancements are another important aspect identified on this Hand Hygiene assignment that is considered to be significantly needed during the pandemic crisis. Because of social distancing, people are needed to work remotely, so technology plays a vital role in maintaining regular activities effectively for the achievement of the productivity of the organisation (Zivich, Gancz& Aiello, 2018). Effective Technology Searches Artificial Intelligence can be used to maintain hand hygiene where a green light or red lights can everywhere people regarding maintaining hand hygiene. Electronic and video monitoring systems have the potential to improve hand hygiene. In this context, the stakeholders of the organisation are required to take the most significant responsibility for overcoming this unique situation with certain potential challenges. The organisation is quite resistant to adapt to any changes, and that can be the most important drawback for the effective implementation of the improvement strategies.

The most important stakeholder of the organisation is the (oecd.org. (2020) stated that hand hygiene must have to be taken seriously so that it can cause no harm.
Employers and managers should be well prepared the adapting to frequent changes in the guidelines and regulations that are designed for the effective prevention of the infection with keeping the people safe (pnas.org. 2022). Effective leadership is required for creating the most positive and inclusive environment in the organisation.
The major obstructions to the effective implementation of the improvement strategies can be considered to include the; Communication: This is considered to be the most important obstacle to the execution of the improvement strategies. Effective communication is the fundamental element of the most engaged workforce. Therefore, effective communication can create four times as likely to report high engagement of the employees in the workplace.
Diversity: Another issue for the effective implementation of the improvement strategies identified on this Hand Hygiene assignmentis the inability to accept diversity in the workplace. The organisation is unable to accept diversity which is considered to bring such unique talent to the organisation, which in turn leads to gaining a competitive advantage in the market.
Resistance: Lastly, resistance is considered to be the most significant issue for the effective implementation of improvement strategies. The people are not ready to adjust to difficult circumstances. Therefore, change management is very important in this context to make people actively engaged in adapting to the changes for the betterment of the organisation.

Part 3: EVALUATION
Various types of risks are associated with the health care system. It has been understood that hand hygiene plays one of the major roles in getting affected by some diseases. Thus, hand hygiene has a significant role in spreading disease. Therefore, these issues should be evaluated perfectly to prevent infectious diseases from going further. As the Hand Hygiene assignmentaims to identify the gaps, key issues, and weak points which are practiced by the people in this current organization, it has been evaluated to get a better understanding of the spreading of these infectious diseases. Infection prevention control is the cost-effective approach for effectively controlling the infection. It has been observed that several approaches had been adopted to prevent the spreading of disease. That approach includes hand washing regularly. The organisation is considered to face various challenges like the competitiveness, safety of the employees,technological advancements diversity issue which responding to challenges. These issues are to be evaluated and mitigated. With these issues in the organization, there can be a huge negative impact on the employees as well as the organization. If there was not enough safety for the employees, the employees will be suffering from various physical and mental problems. Eventually, they will not be able to pay full focus to the specified task. This will result in a loss for the organization because there will be a huge amount of inefficiency in the working of the employees in the organization. It has been understood that the diversity issue is becoming a big factor as far as health safety is concerned. There is a need to acquire stable and long-term employees who can ensure productivity with improving profit. Therefore, it is believed that hand hygiene can be taken care of well to mitigate these issues. The organisation is considered to be resistant and reluctant to adjust to the new changes. Therefore, effective leadership qualities are required to cope with such situations.

Therefore, considering the interventions, effective measurements or the evaluation methods of the improvement strategies identified on this Hand Hygiene assignment, the need to be implemented throughout the organisation to overcome the situation. The evaluation method is considered to be mainly focused on the major areas like;

The productivity of the organisation: The productivity of each employee is one of the best indicators for measuring the effectiveness of infection control and prevention. The most positive and inclusive culture of the organisation is predicted to make the people of the organisation more productive (Faulkner-Gurstein et al., 2021). Productivity can be measured in terms of the amount of money that the organisation is spending on the wages of employees which should be quite less than each employee can earn the organisation with the aid of their work.
The rate of retention of the employees: The retention rate of the employees of the organisation is considered to provide the overall insight into how the organisation provides a better experience to the employees of the organisation. The more positivity in the organisation, the higher rate of retention of the employees (Kurgat et al., 2019). The retention rate is one of the major indicators that can provide an idea of how the organisation is treating the employees in terms of motivation and engagement. Generally, the retention rate of ninety per cent and higher than that may lead to the average turnover rate of employees of ten per cent or more than that.
The overall performance of the organisation: The overall performance of the organisation is the most significant indicator for assessing the effectiveness of the engagement of the employees and the associated people with the focus on the motivation of the people. The overall performance of the organisation is generally measured for different levels of the hierarchy, and that can be assessed for the groups of individuals or individuals or the entire organisation as a whole (Gould et al., 2018). The performance of the organisation is based on two aspects, including operational performance and economic performance.
Rate of the absence of the employees: The rate of employee absence can be calculated to understand the current situation of the organization. It has been understood that an organization needs to be a healthy place as far as the safety of the employees is concerned. Otherwise, the rate of employee absence may be increasing. Therefore, the rate of the absence of the employees of the organisation is a significant indicator of the effectiveness of the implementation of the improvement strategies. One of the major things identified on this Hand Hygiene assignmentthat must be maintained in the organization is cleanliness. It has been understood that lack of cleanliness is one of the main reasons for the diseases being spread all over. Thus, providing a safe place in the organization is important to decrease the rate of absenteeism in the workplace.
The rate of absence can be calculated as the number of days of absence divided by the number of available working days in the total period. This result is then multiplied by a hundred to get the percentage. The more improvement in the current practice in the organisation, the less the rate of the absence of the employees, which in turn brings the most productivity for the organisation.
Turnover of the organisation: Turnover is considered to be the most significant indicator of productivity as well as the competitiveness of the organisation. The more the rate of turnover, the less the productivity of the organisation. The more effective implementation of the improvement strategies for infection control and prevention, the less the rate of the turnover of the employees in the organisation. The turnover rate of twenty-five per cent would mean that about twenty-five per cent of employees who were considered to be working at the beginning of the year had left the organisation by the end of the year.
Therefore, these are the factors of the evaluation method with the aid of which the effectiveness of the implementation of the improvement strategies is considered to be evaluated. Therefore, the evaluation of the interventions is considered to be most important to make the required changes for gaining productivity in the organisation.

Part 4: CONCLUSION
After a thorough analysis of hand hygiene compliance in a subacute setting, it is concluded that several issues are rapidly becoming a headache for people. The issues include technological advancements, the safety of the employees, competitiveness, diversity issues, communication issues, and responding to such challenges or uncertainties. It has been understood that effective leadership would bring the issue of hand hygiene under control as well as frequent hand washing should be strictly maintained. Communication is the major obstruction that is preventing the effective engagement of the employees of the organisation. Other obstructions are considered to include the inability to accept the diversities and the resistance to adjust to the changes that are required to improve the current practice in the organisation.

Therefore, the obstruction is required to be mitigated effectively for the effective implementation of the improvement strategies. After the effective implementation, there is a need for further evaluation of the effectiveness of the implementation, which needs to be measured in terms of the overall performance of the organisation, the rate of retention of the employees, the rate of absence, the productivity of the employees and the turnover rate of the organisation Despite having all the rules and regulations in place, infectious diseases can spread until employees do not restrict themselves from doing unhealthy work in the organization. This Hand Hygiene assignment advices that the organisation needs to be careful in understanding various issues for gaining productivity without compromising the health of the employees of the organisation.

REFERENCES
Alegbeleye, B. J. (2020). Coronavirus disease-19 outbreak: barriers to hand hygiene practices among healthcare professionals in sub-Saharan Africa. Int J Sci Adv, Hand Hygiene assignment1(1).https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Bamidele-Alegbeleye/publication/343080242_Coronavirus_Disease-19_Outbreak_Barriers_to_Hand_Hygiene_Practices_Among_Healthcare_Professionals_in_Sub-Saharan_Africa/links/5f15bcdb4585151299aaecad/Coronavirus-Disease-19-Outbreak-Barriers-to-Hand-Hygiene-Practices-Among-Healthcare-Professionals-in-Sub-Saharan-Africa.pdf
Banks, M., & Phillips, A. B. (2021). Evaluating the effect of automated hand hygiene technology on compliance and C. difficile rates in a long-term acute care hospital. American Journal of Infection Control, 49(6), 727-732.https://biovigil.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Spaulding-AJIC.pdf
Faulkner-Gurstein, R., Wyatt, D., Cowan, H., Hare, N., Harris, C., & Wolfe, C. (2022). The organisation and impacts of clinical research delivery workforce redeployment during the COVID-19 pandemic: a qualitative case study of one research-intensive acute hospital trust. Health Research Policy and Systems, 20(1), 1-11. Retrieved on 9 August 2022 from https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s12961-022-00876-5Hand Hygiene assignment
Gould, D. J., Moralejo, D., Chudleigh, J. H., &Drey, N. (2018). The Australian National Hand Hygiene Initiative: framework for future research. The Lancet Infectious Diseases.https://openaccess.city.ac.uk/id/eprint/20861/1/ Hillier, M. D. (2020). Using effective hand hygiene practice to prevent and control infection. Nurs Stand, 35(5), 45-50.https://www.mghpcs.org/munncenter/Documents/weekly/apr-29/Hand-Hygiene-Practice.pdf
Kelcikova, S., Mazuchova, L., Bielena, L., &Filova, L. (2019). Flawed self assessment in hand hygiene: A major contributor to infections in clinical practice.Journal of Clinical Nursing, 28(11-12), 2265-2275.https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Simona-Kelcikova/
publication/331238452_Flawed_self-assessment_in_hand_hygiene_A_major_contributor_to_infections_in_clinical_practice/links/60829dd69 07dcf667bb9f0d1/Flawed-self-assessment-in-hand-hygiene-A-major-contributor-to-infections-in-clinical-practice.pdf
Kurgat, E. K., Sexton, J. D., Garavito, F., Reynolds, A., Contreras, R. D., Gerba, C. P., ... & Reynolds, K. A. (2019). Impact of a hygiene intervention on virus spread in an office building. International journal of hygiene and environmental health, Hand Hygiene assignment222(3), 479-485.https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1438463918305911

Lawson, A., &Vaganay-Miller, M. (2019). The effectiveness of a poster intervention on hand hygiene practice and compliance when using public restrooms in a university setting. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 16(24), 5036.https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/16/24/5036/pdf
Lee, Y. F., McLaws, M. L., Ong, L. M., Amir Husin, S., Chua, H. H., Wong, S. Y., ... &Zingg, W. (2019). Hand hygiene–social network analysis of peer-identified and management-selected change agents. Antimicrobial Resistance & Infection Control, 8(1), 1-7.https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s13756-019-0644-x
oecd.org. (2022). Retrieved 9 August 2022, from https://www.oecd.org/employment/covid-19.htm
Palagyi, A., Marais, B. J., Abimbola, S., Topp, S. M., McBryde, E. S., &Negin, J. (2019). Health system preparedness for emerging infectious diseases: a synthesis of the literature. Global Public Health, Hand Hygiene assignment14(12), 1847-1868.https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/17441692.2019.1614645
pnas.org. (2022). Retrieved 9 August 2022, from https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2006991117
Singh, M., Pawar, M., Bothra, A., & Choudhary, N. (2020). Overzealous hand hygiene during the COVID 19 pandemic causing an increased incidence of hand eczema among general population. Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology, 83(1), e37-e41.https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7161474/
Vermeil, T., Peters, A., Kilpatrick, C., Pires, D., Allegranzi, B., &Pittet, D. (2019). Hand hygiene in hospitals: anatomy of a revolution. Journal of Hospital Infection, 101(4), 383-392.https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Alexandra-Peters-3/publication/327698180_Hand_Hygiene_in_hospitals_Anatomy_of_a_revolution/links/5cf640b6299b f1fb18566a41/Hand-Hygiene-in-hospitals-Anatomy-of-a-revolution.pdf
Zivich, P. N., Gancz, A. S., & Aiello, A. E. (2018). Effect of hand hygiene on infectious diseases in the office workplace: A systematic review. American journal of infection control, 46(4), 448-455.https://cdr.lib.unc.edu/downloads/8g84ms87bHand Hygiene assignment