Patients Willing to Remind Doctors to Wash Their Hands
Patients Willing to Remind Doctors to Wash Their Hands – A Korean health study shows that doctors and health care workers may not like patients telling them to clean up.
Dr. Min-Kyung Kim of the Seoul National University College of Medicine and colleagues surveyed 334 patients or family members, as well as 152 doctors and 387 nurses at one hospital in Seoul about hand-washing, the most effective way to prevent the spread of infections in hospitals.
They asked patients and their families about their opinions on hand-washing and if they would want to tell their doctors and nurses to wash their hands if needed. Researchers asked doctors and nurses what they thought about hand hygiene, how often they washed their hands, and what they felt about patients asking them to do so.
Researchers found that 75% of patients and 84% of families wanted to ask health care workers to wash their hands. But only 26% of doctors and 31% of nurses said they would prefer patients telling them to wash their hands. The majority of them were not in favor of it because they thought it would have a negative impact on their relationship with patients. Other reasons included work overload, concern about patient’s lack of knowledge, a fear that their authority would be undermined, and legal reasons.
According to Dr. Nasia Safdar, a researcher at the University of Wisconsin Department of Medicine, how patient involvement in such matters is viewed is culture-specific, and therefore the findings may not be applicable to all settings.
Category: News
