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Hand hygiene and risk for occupational dermatitis
Submit responseHanddermatitis is an occupational health problem among nurses and physicians. Frequent en prolonged exposure to water and soap is a major risk factor for developing handdermatitis. The spectacular progress of medical science with Semmelweis’ insight on the need for hygiene in natal care has its drawback when it is not applied judiciously. Pittet et al published a study on hand hygiene among physicians in Ann Intern med 2004; 141:1-8. Similar to Pittet we performed a study among nurses and found a lack of consistency between the observed and reported handhygiene activities(1). We found that about one third of the wet work activities in nursing are hand hygiene activities, making hand hygiene activities a major risk factor for hand dermatitis. Pittet found that in only 57% of the situations where hand hygiene was necessary, it was applied correctly. When the frequency of hand hygiene activities has to increase, as Pittet suggests, it is important to introduce methods for hand hygiene that are both effective and less irritating for the skin. Pittet found that adherence to regulations of hand hygiene with a hand-rub increased when the hand-rub-solutions were easy to access. In addition to our observations of wet work in nurses we performed a study to compare the irritating affect of two additional hand hygiene regulations(2): 1. Use a hand alcohol in stead of water and soap in disinfecting procedures 2. Use gloves in wet activities such as patient washing, to prevent the hands to become wet and dirty We found a decrease in skin irritation when these regulations would be implemented. These results, combined with the higher hygiene performance of hand-rub solutions, as published by Winnefield(3), justify the conclusion that a hand-rub is the preferred disinfectant
Conflict of Interest:
None declared