Nurses are urged to remove hand jewellery while at work

New campaign seeks- to prevent hospital infections in Helsinki

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”This must be used before a treatment, afterwards, and even in between”, says nurse Hanna Koivu while running antiseptic hand sanitiser on her fingers at the Haartman Hospital in Helsinki on Thursday.
      Disinfection is done in no time, as Koivu does not use any pieces of jewellery on her fingers or around her wrists. Neither should she, Koivu points out, as dangerous bacteria can nest in jewellery.
     
Apparently this policy is not crystal-clear to all nurses, which is why the City of Helsinki Health Centre has launched a new campaign entitled Koruton sairaala (”Jewellery-free Hospital”), urging all health care personnel to remove trinkets and watches while at work.
      The bacteria hidden in jewellery may cause infections, and the reduction of bacteria is the integral part of the campaign, says physician Juha Vuorte from Helsinki’s Haartman Hospital.
     
”Even though no study has been carried out relating to causal factors associated with infections, it is evident that nurses’ jewellery can increase the risk of infections”, Vuorte argues.
      There are no statistical data on the number of those nurses who wear jewellery. Vuorte believes that it is a matter of occasional cases.
      However, bacteria obviously come from somewhere, as the annual number of patients who are infected in hospitals is around 50,000.
     
According to the instructions issued by the Health Centre, jewellery does not belong to nursing. Yet there has never been any actual campaign against jewellery, the Union of Health and Social Care Professionals (TEHY) reports.
      ”In terms of professional ethics this policy is clear to all. No matter how well you clean a ring, some impurity will always stay there”, says officer Irmeli Vuoriluoto of TEHY.
     
All Helsinki’s hospitals, health centres, and dental clinics are participating in the anti-jewellery campaign.
      ”The aim is that all personnel, including the executives, would remove their jewellery while at work. Setting an encouraging example can act as a strong incentive for others”, Vuorte notes.
      If someone wittingly violates the instructions, subsequent sanctions could be either a reprimand or in extreme cases even the termination of employment.
     
None of the nurses working at the Haartman emergency clinic admits having worn jewellery while at work.
      ”The instructions have been repeated so many times that people spontaneously remove their jewellery”, Hanna Koivu concludes.
     
Apart from jewellery, certain other things may cause trouble today, including artificial nails and handshaking.
      Fake nails may get loose, notes Irmeli Vuoriluoto.
      The ban on handshaking is not widely accepted either, as touching patients is part of daily nursing.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Antibiotic-resistant MRSA hospital bacteria spreading faster than ever (26.8.2008)
  Finnish hospitals deficient in personnel specialized in infection prevention (5.11.2007)
  MRSA hospital bacteria costs municipalities millions of euros (28.10.2005)
  Record number of serious infections from hospital bacteria last year (17.1.2005)

Links:
  Helsinki hospitals hit by MRSA epidemic (24.8.2004)
  The Union of Health and Social Care Professionals

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