Inside Duke Medicine
Hand hygiene pays off
posted September 24th, 2008
Sept. 22-26 is Clean Hands Week! DUH will acknowledge the powerful simplicity of washing away germs. Hand-washing is easy and saves lives.
Learn more about daily practices that will promote good hand hygiene.
Read more for some hand-hygiene-related tidbits based on information provided by the Centers for Disease Control.
- Hand Hygiene should be done before and after each patient contact.
- Hand Hygiene can be accomplished by either washing hands for 15 seconds with hospital-approved soap and water or by use of the waterless hand sanitizers.
- The use of gloves does not eliminate the need for hand hygiene. Likewise, the use of hand hygiene does not eliminate the need for gloves. Gloves reduce hand contamination by 70 percent to 80 percent, prevent cross-contamination and protect patients and health care personnel from infection. Hand Hygiene should be done before and after each patient contact just as gloves should be changed before and after each patient contact.
- When using an alcohol-based handrub, apply product to palm of one hand and rub hands together, covering all surfaces of hands and fingers, until hands are dry.
- Health care personnel should avoid wearing artificial nails and keep natural nails less than one quarter of an inch long if they provide any “hands on” patient care at Duke.
- Alcohol-based hand rubs take less time to use than traditional hand washing. In an eight-hour shift, an estimated one hour of an ICU nurse’s time will be saved by using an alcohol-based handrub.