May 5th, 2021 is World Hand Hygiene Day, sponsored by the WHO, and is part of the CDC’s “Clean Your Hands Campaign.” Every year on this date, people mobilize to promote the adherence to proper hand hygiene in healthcare facilities worldwide, by protecting healthcare workers as well as their patients from serious infections. Furthermore, this year’s “Save Lives: Clean your hands” campaign has been aligned with the “Year of the Nurse and the Midwife” which promotes the recognition of nurses and midwives as heroes deserving of acknowledgement and appreciation.
Clean Your Hands
The primary goal of this campaign is recognizing the importance of handwashing and how it can be effective at preventing infections and reducing the spread of pathogens, including the Coronavirus. Community members and healthcare workers can play a key role in the prevention of infections through frequent and regular handwashing. As part of the campaign last year (2020), the WHO and their partners were committed to:
- Engaging with healthcare workers in the prevention of infections
- Inspiring behavior change by promoting better hand hygiene
- Making better hand hygiene a priority on a global scale
The Clean Hands Count Campaign is backed by the CDC. Its primary goal is to improve the adherence of healthcare providers to:
- Address the misperceptions and myths regarding hand hygiene
- Adhere to recommendations concerning hand hygiene
- Empower patients to play more of a role in their own care by reminding or urging health care providers and themselves to practice better hand hygiene
Policy-makers were also called upon to improve staffing levels and provide safer working environments for nurses. Furthermore, leaders of infection and prevention control efforts were asked to empower nurses and midwives in the provision of clean care and hand hygiene.
Alcohol-based Hand Sanitizers & Hand Hygiene
Depending on the number of patients they attend to in a 12-hour shift, nurses and other healthcare providers might wash their hands 100 times or more. Here are 3 things you should know about alcohol-based hand sanitizers and hand hygiene:
- Alcohol-based hand sanitizer is considerably less drying and more effective than soap and water, nor does it create superbugs that are antibiotic-resistant.
- Alcohol-based hand sanitizer will kill most the germs that make people sick
- Alcohol-based hand sanitizer will not kill C. difficile, a common healthcare-related infection that can cause severe diarrhea.
In addition, it does help to use a moisturizer if you wash your hands with soap and water multiple times in a day, as it can be dehydrating for your skin. Thus, protect your skin from drying and chaffing.
If you or someone you know is in need of medical diagnostic imaging please call Vital Imaging at 305.596.9992 today.