“Healthcare workers also need to learn the proper technique for hand hygiene. People are supposed to rub their hands together for a minimum of 15 seconds when washing their hands. When Renee Watson, RNC, BSN, CPHQ, CIC, manager of infection prevention and epidemiology at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta asks physicians and staff to mime rubbing their hands together to wash hands in a training session, however, they usually drop off around seven or eight seconds. Even people who think they wash their hands for the full 15 seconds typically do not meet that minimum in the training exercise, she says. Awareness of both the proper technique and one's execution of this technique is therefore critical to ensuring hand hygiene compliance and preventing infections.
Another important lesson is the difference between soap and water and alcohol sanitizers, according to Ms. Watson. Alcohol hand sanitizers are more effective at eliminating pathogens except when hands are visibly soiled, when the caregiver has blood and body fluids on their hands or when they have worked with specific organisms that require mechanical removal — for which soap and water should be used, she says. “
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