I’m not sure if there is much that I can say about hand
hygiene that I haven’t already in past blogs and that everyone already
knows.
When it comes to hand hygiene, I
think Nike’s slogan sums it up perfectly: “JUST DO IT!”
Unfortunately, while we know what we should do and why we should do it, hand hygiene is one
of those tasks that often gets put aside because we are busy or we forgot or we
just don’t see the point. A few of the
favorite blogs I’ve done on hand hygiene include; “I
TRIPLE DOG DARE you to wash your hands” where
I pondered what would happen if we changed our tact. It’s been well published that doctors and
nurses fail to wash their hands with alarming frequency. In fact, this lack of hand hygiene contributes
to 247 deaths each day by preventable hospital infections. What if a hand
hygiene DARE was said out loud in front of your other peers? Would your rise to the challenge?
I’m sure I needn’t say much more than Semmelweiss, and we
can all fill in the blanks about the history of hand hygiene. My “The
Dissenter & Father of Hand Hygiene” blog celebrated Semmelweiss’ 195th birthday
with a little history lesson on how the importance of hand hygiene came to be
known. I would just like to say, I am SO
thankful I was not alive during this time – particularly if I was with child!
Playing on the concept of
dissenters or deviants in “A+
or F what’s your hand hygiene grade?” I “dared” you to take a quiz and be positively
deviant. The objective of the quiz was to
answer based on how NOT to follow hand hygiene best
practices. If you scored an A+ you without a doubt ensured that you
were effective at spreading diseases.
Where does that leave us now? Well I hope you’ll “JUST DO IT!” after sneezing
or coughing into your hands. I hope
you’ll “JUST DO IT!” after using the toilet.
I hope you’ll “JUST DO IT!” after handling raw meat or uncooked
foods. I hope you’ll “JUST DO IT!” after
petting an animal. I hope you’ll “JUST
DO IT!” after helping a child or adult use the toilet or change a diaper or
after helping someone blow their nose.
Last but not least, I hope you’ll “JUST DO IT!” before you enter a
patient’s room to perform any form of care and/or after touching the patient’s
environment.
Hand hygiene saves lives.
I know I want to protect the lives of my loved ones when they’re in a
healthcare facility. Don’t you want to
protect their lives to?
Bugging Off!
Nicole
