Hand hygiene: knowledge and skill of caregivers in the hematopoietic stem cell transplantation

Educational technologies for teaching hand hygiene: Systematic review

AIM

To gather available scientific evidence on technologies used to teach hand hygiene to professional populations and lays involved in health care in the hospital setting. This systematic review was designed as proposed by Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis, included studies reporting primary, original, quantitative research findings with no date limit and written in English, Spanish or Portuguese. The search was performed in the following electronic databases: Cochrane Library, Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature, Excerpta Medica dataBASE, Literatura Latino-Americana e do Caribe em Ciências da Saúde, US National Library of Medicine, Scopus, Web of Science, Google Scholar and ProQuest. The eligibility criteria were applied independently by two reviewers to select the studies, first by reading the titles and abstracts on the Rayyan platform and then by full text reading of the eligible studies. After a descriptive analysis, the studies were subjected to critical evaluation of their methodological quality using JBI tools.

RESULTS

Seven studies were included, addressing various methods for teaching hand hygiene using different technological resources, such as audiovisual electronic devices, videos, virtual reality, and gamification using tablets and smartphones, in different populations.

CONCLUSION

Using technologies to teach hand hygiene considerably helps patients, visitors, and relatives in learning the procedures and efficiently improves hand hygiene compliance rates among healthcare professionals, creating evidence-based repetitive learning opportunities for patients and caregivers.

Self-care guidelines for patients in the post-hematopoietic stem cell transplantation period: a scoping review

OBJECTIVE

To map the evidence on self-care guidelines for patients in the post-hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) period.

METHOD

Scoping review supported by Joanna Briggs Institute recommendations, with searches conducted between March and April 2022 in national and international databases and repositories of theses and dissertations.

RESULTS

Of the 11 studies that composed the final sample, the guidelines had a social and personal aspect, as post-transplant patients need to follow numerous essential recommendations for the prevention of infections and complications for successful treatment and improved quality of life.

CONCLUSION

Knowing the self-care guidelines that must be performed by post-HSCT patients is fundamental for the nursing team to provide the necessary information for care outside the controlled environment of the hospital, in addition to minimizing episodes of infection, death, and increasing the survival and quality of life of transplant recipients.

The impact of caregivers on nosocomial transmission during a COVID-19 outbreak in a community-based hospital in South Korea

The COVID-19 pandemic becomes a cause of concern for hospital transmission. Caregivers may play an important role as vectors for nosocomial infections; however, infection control for caregivers often is neglected. A nosocomial COVID-19 outbreak occurred in a 768-bed hospital from March 20, 2020, to April 14, 2020. We conducted a retrospective chart review and epidemiologic investigation on all cases. A total of 54 cases of laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 occurred in the community-based hospital. They included 26 (48.1%) patients, 21 (38.9%) caregivers, and 7 (13.0%) healthcare workers. These 21 caregivers cared for 18 patients, and of these, 9 were positive for COVID-19, 6 were negative, and 3 died before testing. Of the 6 negative patients, 3 had no exposure because the caregiver began to show symptoms at least 5 days after their discharge. Of the 9 positive patients, 4 cases of transmission took place from patient to caregiver (one patient transmitted COVID-19 to two caregivers), and 6 cases of transmission occurred from caregiver to patient. Of the 54 hospital-acquired cases, 38 occurred in the 8th-floor ward and 8 occurred in the 4th-floor ward. The index case of each ward was a caregiver. Counting the number of cases where transmission occurred only between patients and their own caregivers, 9 patients were suspected of having exposure to COVID-19 from their own caregivers. Six patients (66.7%) were infected by COVID-19-confirmed caregivers, and 3 patients were uninfected. Fewer patients among the infected were able to perform independent activities compared to uninfected patients. Not only patients and healthcare workers but also caregivers groups may be vulnerable to COVID-19 and be transmission sources of nosocomial outbreaks. Therefore, infection control programs for caregivers in addition to patients and healthcare workers can be equally important.

Analysis of Gender-Dependent Personal Protective Behaviors in a National Sample: Polish Adolescents' COVID-19 Experience (PLACE-19) Study

During the coronavirus-19 disease (COVID-19) pandemic, the basic strategy that is recommended to reduce the spread of the disease is to practice proper hand hygiene and personal protective behaviors, but among adolescents, low adherence is common. The present study aimed to assess the gender-dependent hand hygiene and personal protective behaviors in a national sample of Polish adolescents. The Polish Adolescents’ COVID-19 Experience (PLACE-19) Study was conducted in a group of 2323 secondary school students (814 males, 1509 females). Schools were chosen based on the random quota sampling procedure. The participants were surveyed to assess their knowledge and beliefs associated with hand hygiene and personal protection, as well as their actual behaviors during the COVID-19 pandemic. The majority of respondents gave proper answers when asked about their knowledge. However, females displayed a higher level of knowledge (p < 0.05). Most of the respondents declared not leaving home, handwashing, using alcohol-based hand rub, avoiding contact with those who may be sick, and avoiding public places as their personal protective behaviors. They declared using face masks and gloves after the legal regulation requiring people to cover their nose and mouth in public places was enacted in Poland. Regarding the use of face masks and not touching the face, no gender-dependent differences were observed, while for all the other behaviors, females declared more adherence than males (p < 0.05). Females also declared a higher daily frequency of handwashing (p < 0.0001) and washing their hands always when necessary more often than males (68.2% vs. 54.1%; p < 0.0001). Males more often indicated various reasons for not handwashing, including that there is no need to do it, they do not feel like doing it, they have no time to do it, or they forget about it (p < 0.0001), while females pointed out side effects (e.g., skin problems) as the reason (p = 0.0278). Females more often declared handwashing in circumstances associated with socializing, being exposed to contact with other people and health (p < 0.05), and declared always including the recommended steps in their handwashing procedure (p < 0.05). The results showed that female secondary school students exhibited a higher level of knowledge on hand hygiene and personal protection, as well as better behaviors, compared to males. However, irrespective of gender, some false beliefs and improper behaviors were observed, which suggests that education is necessary, especially in the period of the COVID-19 pandemic.