Adherence to the handwashing guide in the ICU: Epidemiological Surveillance in the Hospital of San José de Bogotá Adherencia a la guía de lavado de manos en UCI: Vigilancia Epidemiológica en el Hospital de San José de Bogotá

Abstract

The objective of this research is to determine the adherence to the guide of clinical management of hand washing by the health personnel, after the application of the epidemiological surveillance system (EVS) in the intensive care unit (ICU) of the Hospital de San José de Bogotá. To achieve this, there was a group of 33 individuals who made up the sample. A checklist and supplies were applied to this health personnel, obtaining an initial diagnosis. The operation of the EVS was then explained and tasks assigned. Then an accompaniment was made to solve concerns that arose in the completion of the checklists. Each officer working in the ICU of the Hospital of San José de Bogotá, who was observed in the initial diagnosis, was assigned a code that identified him anonymously and placed him in the epidemiological traffic light, depending on the degree of adherence each one to the clinical hand washing guide. After the EVS implementation, the same checklists used in the initial diagnosis were applied to determine the adherence behavior to the handwashing guide, with the following results: an improvement in the adherence was observed by the whole health personnel, where nurses and therapists were the least successful, and the number of successful items reached 20, which concluded that the staff that works in the ICU, although they wash their hands, have deficiencies in the adherence to the guide, which are susceptible to be overcome with the continuous application of EVS. Although the practice of handwashing is daily, training and periodic evaluation workshops should be held as stipulated in the Ministry of Health's guide to guarantee 100% adherence, since the success of EVS depends on the motivation and continuous application by part of the staff. The control of the permanent availability of supplies, allows the requirement of compliance with the hand washing management guide.