Hygiene is a set of activities or practices that are related to the preservation of health and maintenance of a healthy lifestyle. The concept of hygiene can be connected with medicine, personal and professional care exercises in everyday life. Nevertheless, personal hygiene is the best practice for prevention of infections and infectious diseases in a surgical unit.
The level of senior administration has to maintain reduction of risk for both patients and staff. Medical director controls the medical and nursing services in the organization, especially its performance. He must exercise the power to set formal procedures for defining standards of the personal hygiene. Written infection control programme identifies what the organization considers as being right or wrong – the list of procedures, regulations and laws that include policies and prohibitions. It becomes an effective tool only with staff training and prevention activities. Policy documents include basic personal hygiene policy and hygiene in the surgery unit (Ducel et al 10).
Can't complete your paper?
Need a quick, creative solution?
Never too late to get it done by our pros
Write My PaperHowever, prevention of infections and infectious diseases is the obligation of all health care workers, because hygiene standards require the personal responsibility of it. The main rules of personal hygiene comprise the following issues: clean and short nails, no false nails, short and clean moustaches and beard, short or pinned up hair. Rings, wrist watches and other jewelry are not allowed to wear in the clinics. Hand hygiene takes the first place in the surgical unit. Thus, hands must be properly washed with soap and disinfected between different procedures and after dealing with the patients. Private clothes are not allowed at work. Only working and protective clothes are allowed. Wears must be changed every day or even more often in the case of contamination. Disposable overalls, shoes and caps have to be put on before the entry to the surgical section. Wearing of clothes outside this unit is prohibited. Elementary personal hygiene habits, such as regular showering, brushing, hand washing, hair and nail care are the basis of the written standards that minimize the risk of infection among patients and enhance overall health of a doctor. The dedication of staff and support from the hospital management are essential components of hygiene abidance (Wascher).
The infection control programme is one of the first steps that help prevent the infections. The situation can be solved by a specific infection control committee or other regulatory body. The basic elements of its work include training and education of managers, physicians and other health care workers. The committee should be able to meet immediately in an emergency case. A real danger arises, when infraction of hygiene rules is unnoticed or not punished. That is why there must be the appropriate penalties for violators as well as effective support at the regional and national levels (Ducel et al 15).
The hospital hygiene service improves hospital cleanliness and develops teaching programmes for the personnel, participates in the operation of regional and national initiatives. Such service provides expert advice and controls the infringement of rules.
In practice, proper communication is the crucial part of quality assurance. It helps in choosing of health programs, health care providers and treatments. Such initiative also needs a multidisciplinary approach. Multidisciplinary health communication recognizes the complexity for attainment of behavioral and social change. Therefore, a multifaceted approach is a necessary modification, because it is based on the application of various theoretical frameworks and disciplines linked with health education (Schiavo 57).
In conclusion, the personal hygiene is the main issue of any surgical unit. It can be achieved by wise medical leadership and policies that are determined by general principles and standards of the hospital hygiene service. All of them can be standardized in the infection control programme and regulated by the infection control committee.