The news of handwashing
is not a new subject for healthcare providers. If you currently practice in the
healthcare field, you hear about the importance of handwashing on a continual
basis. Handwashing is an effective strategy to prevent nosocomial or healthcare associated
infections (HAIs) (Jones, 2014). Spruce encourages handwashing as "the foundation of infection prevention is hand hygiene; therefore, healthcare facilities need to make hand hygiene a number one priority in the prevention of HAIs" (pp. 456). Infectious agents can be spread without the
healthcare provider’s knowledge. Such avenues of transmission are often related
to direct contact, such as shaking hands or through transition of objects. According to the Center of Disease Control, "many diseases and conditions are spread by not washing hands with soap and clean, running water" (p.1). You, as a healthcare provider, can
help fight healthcare associated infections by simply washing your hands.
It is recommended to wash your hands as you enter the working environmnet, before and after patient contact, before and after meals, before and after using the restroom, when leaving your workplace, and when the hands are visibly soiled (Spruce, 2013).There are several different strategies to achieve appropriate hand hygiene. For the clinical setting it is suggested to use alcohol based solutions when needed, and using soap and water when the hands are visibly soiled (Spruce, 2013). Essentially there are five important steps to hand washing: wet, lather, scrub, rinse, dry (CDC, 2013). It is important to wet all services of the hands, obtain soap, and lather and scrub both sides of the hand, between the fingers, under fingernails, and up two inches above the wrist. Once all areas of the hand have been scrubbed and rinsed, dry each hand completely. When using the alcohol based solution, apply solution, scrub hands in their entirety, as described above, until each hand is dry. According to Spruce, “once dry, your hands are safe” (pp. 453). It is important to scrub the areas that are most frequently missed, which are the back side of the thumbs, between the fingers, and the tips of each finger, as shown in Figure 1. Taking note of these recommendations, you should also comply with your facilities personal hand hygiene policy.
