Handwashing Knowledge and Practice of Palliative Care

Palliative care is an interdisciplinary approach that provides health care services for patients with cancer, Alzheimer's, chronic diseases and organ failure such as heart, lung and kidney and provides treatment and support services by including family members in order to reduce pain, manage symptoms and improve quality of life in patients. is the approach.

Palliative care can be provided in hospitals, primary health care institutions, home settings and nursing homes. The economic difficulties of individuals in meeting the health care services offered in hospitals and the difficulties in reaching health care institutions have revealed the necessity of home care services. However, the inability of sick individuals to receive regular and effective home care services by the same health professionals has created different problems. Although palliative care has been established rapidly in our country, the number and training of health professionals is insufficient. Therefore, it becomes difficult to provide services to individuals in need of health care.

Factors such as inadequacies in the management of symptoms in the palliative care process, worsening of the disease prognosis and inability to provide the necessary medical support create many problems.The complexity of palliative care also creates problems in providing quality care to patients. Caregiving is not only limited to helping, but also provides support in terms of physical, mental, psychological, social and economic aspects. Experienced in the maintenance process; The characteristics of the care environment and the insufficient support affect the relatives of the patients negatively.As a result of these situations, the relatives of the patients are involved in a difficult situation to cope with.

Generally, first-degree relatives of the patients undertake the duty of accompanying them. The companion practice, which is accepted among the patient rights, meets the needs of the patients due to the low number of nurses. While the companions experience emotional problems due to their closeness to the sick individuals, they also have auxiliary roles such as helping the patient to eat, making him move, helping him get dressed or dressed, drinking his medication under the control of health professionals, and changing the bed linens.

Palliative care patients are the group most affected by infections due to invasive procedures for diagnosis and treatment, complications, weak immune system of the patient, and existing acute and chronic diseases. One of the most effective and easy ways to control infections and prevent their spread, both in daily life and in hospitals, is to provide hand hygiene. In hospital settings, infection prevention and control procedures recognize hand washing as the primary solution. Poor hand hygiene increases the risk of nosocomial infections, which negatively affect the patient's treatment, cause health complications, and thus prolong the hospital stay. In controlling hospital infections, hand hygiene behaviors and awareness of patient companions, who have an important place in the care of patients, should be considered as well as the hand hygiene behaviors and awareness of healthcare professionals in palliative care. Warning measures such as hand hygiene education related to prevention of nosocomial infections can reduce the risk of transmission. In a study conducted in 2019, it was determined that repeated trainings on hand hygiene and the posters prepared improved the hand hygiene of the companions. In the study conducted in 2015, it was stated that the hand hygiene of health professionals and companions will ensure the prevention and control of infections and that the trainings given will increase their hand hygiene behavior and awareness. In addition, in the study conducted in 2014, in which the hand hygiene compliance of the auxiliary service personnel was investigated, it was determined that education was effective on the hand hygiene compliance of the auxiliary service personnel. İt was determined that the hand hygiene compliance status would develop positively as the information about hand hygiene increased.

While the studies on hand hygiene in the literature deal with healthcare professionals, there is no study on hand hygiene of the companions who support the patient's care in the palliative care process. In order to protect patients from infection in the palliative care process, it is very important to evaluate the companions within the chain of infection and to support them in order to provide appropriate hand hygiene.

The study was planned to evaluate the effect of hand hygiene training given to the companions in the palliative care service with standard patient simulation on hand washing knowledge and practices.

Inclusion criteria

• Over eighteen years old
• Least literate
• Able to communicate effectively
• Filling the data collection tools completely

Exclusion criteria

• Under the age of eighteen
• İlliterate
• No effective communication
• İncomplete data collection tools