Hand hygiene is an essential aspect of infection prevention. That is why the World Health Organization is getting healthcare workers to unite on May 5th under the motto, “Unite for safety: clean your hands.” By creating a culture where hand hygiene and infection prevention are valued and taken seriously, we can successfully prevent infections.
As a healthcare provider, you play a key role in infection prevention. In addition to the medical aspects, you are also active in the areas of safety and quality, and this is evident in your own behavior. You wash your hands when going from patient to patient, use appropriate hygiene when handling materials that may risk infection, do patient safety checks on a regular basis, and thus contribute to the prevention of infection. Cleaning your hands is an important part of hand hygiene.
When a health facility's "quality and safety climate or culture" values hand hygiene and infection prevention and control (IPC), this results in both patients and health workers feeling protected and cared for.
To prioritize clean hands in health facilities, people at all levels need to believe in the importance of hand hygiene and IPC to save lives, by acting as key players in achieving the appropriate behaviors and attitudes towards it. In other words, health workers at all levels and people accessing health care facilities need to unite on ensuring clean hands.
This year's theme for World Hand Hygiene Day, 5 May 2022, is focused on recognizing that we can add to a facility's climate or culture of safety and quality through cleaning our hands but also that a strong quality and safety culture will encourage people to clean hands at the right times and with the right products.
Unite, talk and work together on hand hygiene for high quality safer care everywhere.
Hand hygiene includes hand washing, hand disinfection, and skincare. While the first two measures remove contaminations or render germs harmless, the latter maintains the natural skin barrier.
According to the WHO, up to 50% of preventable healthcare-associated infections could be prevented through proper hand hygiene – among patients as well as healthcare workers themselves. However, factors such as lack of education, inadequate access to clean water, or too few opportunities for hygiene at the point of care mean that healthcare-associated infections are still a major burden in the healthcare sector today.
Moreover, healthcare-associated infections do not only affect health but also pose an enormous economic risk to healthcare institutions through staff shortages or prolonged bed occupancy. Improving hand-hygiene measures can lead to significant savings, on average 16 times the cost of implementing them.
It's time we work harder to protect patients' lives and make healthcare safer. Whether you are a building manager, a healthcare provider, a policymaker, or a hospital director, we know you are already giving your best – and for that we would like to say thank you. Keep up the good work, take the right actions and challenge your routines. Be part of it and help shape an organizational climate today and in the future in which hand hygiene and infection prevention are essential components!
Not only is handwashing important, but it is also the easiest and most effective way to prevent spreading diseases. According to the American Medical Association, there are four main principles to handwashing:
As far as the best soap to use, the FDA says that there is no evidence proving that antibacterial soap helps kill germs any better than using plain soap and water. In fact, long-term use of antibacterial soap could have negative effects on your health. The best thing to use when washing your hands is plain soap and clean water.
According to the CDC, when you wash your hands you should do the following.
The best thing to do if you do not have soap and clean water available is to use a hand sanitizer that contains at least 60% alcohol. Alcohol-based hand sanitizers can quickly reduce the number of germs on hands in some situations. However, sanitizers do not eliminate all types of germs and might not remove harmful chemicals, so you should follow up by washing your hands with soap and water as soon as possible. To get the best use of your hand sanitizer:
Hand Hygiene is one of the most effective actions to reduce the spread of pathogens and prevent infections, including the COVID-19 virus. There is a wide range of WHO campaign materials such as posters, social media assets, selfie boards, web banners, Zoom backgrounds, etc. available in the six official UN languages. All assets are available to download through the below link.
Sources:
https://www.who.int/campaigns/world-hand-hygiene-day/2022
https://www.who.int/campaigns/world-hand-hygiene-day
https://www.sterillium.info/en/stories-hub/world-hand-hygiene-day-2022
https://surewash.com/news/celebrating-world-hand-hygiene-day-2022/
https://www.unwater.org/world-hand-hygiene-day-2022/