Question

1) Compare the effectiveness of hand washing with water, with soap, and with soap and surgical scrubbing.

2) How does the presence of residential flora influence the infectious process?

3) How does hand washing affect residential versus transient flora?

4) Why do you think hand washing is necessary when medical and surgical personnel wear gloves during surgery or when examining patients?

Answer 1

1) Washing hands with soap does not give you much protection. It is just the simplest way to clean your hands. When you wash your hands with soap, it has more chances of removing the transient flora. But by surgical scrubbing your hands gets clean than any other method as it removes transient as well as some residential flora.

2) The transient flora lives on the surface but the residential flora lives on the inner side as they are embedded with the skin. Residential flora are harder to remove. People having weak immune system are more likely to get infected.

3) By washing hands with water, none of the flora can be removed effectively. By using soap to wash hands, we can remove the transient flora upto some extent. But by surgical scrubbing, we can remove both the flora effectively.

4) Washing hands is necessary as the patient may be infected with the flora of the doctor in case the glove gets punctured. It also protects the doctor from receiving the flora from the patient. The doctor should wash his hands to avoid any negative future consequences.