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Hand Hygiene
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Handwashing
Among
Healthcare
Workers Leads to
Rise in Dermatitis
By Shannon Barnet
E
fforts to enhance hand hygiene and reduce healthcare-asso-
ciated infections have also led to the rise in dermatitis among
healthcare workers, according to a study conducted by The
University of Manchester.
Irritant contact dermatitis is the inflammation, reddening and scaling
of the skin. It is a common source of occupational skin disorders in
individuals who work with soaps, cleaners and solvents, according to
Medscape.
Researchers examined a database of more than 7,100 cases of work-
related skin problems reported between 1996 and 2012, and found
nearly 1,800 of the reported cases affected healthcare workers.
Additionally, cases of irritant contact dermatitis increased drastically
among healthcare workers over the studied time period. Healthcare
workers were 4.5 times more likely to report suffering from skin prob-
lems in 2012 than in 1996, whereas other professions remained the
same. n
Hand Hygiene
Compliance Can
Cause Dermatitis:
5 Tips to Avoid It
By Heather Punke
T
here has been a rise in dermatitis — inflammation, reddening and
scaling of the skin — among healthcare workers, in part due to
efforts to improve hand hygiene compliance, a recent study found.
Hand washing plays an important role in preventing healthcare-associated
infections, so "more needs to be done to procure less irritating products and
to implement practices to prevent and treat irritant contact dermatitis," said
epidemiologist and lead researcher Jill Stocks, PhD.
A blog post from DebMed provided some tips for how healthcare workers
can continue to follow hand hygiene best practices but limit skin irritation,
highlighted below:
• Use products that feature emollient ingredients
• Encourage the use of alcohol-based hand rubs
• Use foaming alcohol-based hand rubs, as they are less harsh on the
skin
• Limit use of soaps to when hands are visibly soiled or when treating
patients who have a spore-forming bacteria
• Consider using hand lotion after finishing a shift to rehydrate skin n
