Hand Hygiene Fact Sheets

Hand Hygiene Resources for Healthcare Providers, Patients and Families

Browse the following

• The Need for Better Hand Hygiene in Healthcare

• If Healthcare Provider Hands Could Talk

• Proper Hand Hygiene Technique in Healthcare

• Hand, Skin and Nail Care for Healthcare Providers

• Patient and Family FAQs

Cleaning your hands, either with soap and water or with alcohol-based hand rub, is one of the most effective ways to avoid getting sick and spreading infections to others.  Please read, download, and share these resources to help yourself and others stay safe.

Download the following posters and feedback tools

• How to Hand Wash (PDF)

• How to Hand Rub (PDF)

• Your 4 Moments (PDF)

• On-the-spot Feedback (PDF)

Additional Resources from our Partners

Infection Prevention and Control Canada

• Hand Hygiene E-Learning Tool

• Information about Hand Hygiene

Government of Canada

• Help reduce the spread: Help reduce the spread of COVID-19 - Canada.ca

• Hand washing and staying healthy: Hand washing and staying healthy - Canada.ca

• The benefits of hand washing: The Benefits of Hand Washing - Canada.ca

• Handwashing heroes (for kids): Hand-washing heroes - Canada.ca

Public Health Ontario

• Public Health Ontario-Just Clean Your Hands Program

• Hand Hygiene for COVID-19 Prevention | Public Health Ontario

HSO

• World Health Organization: Hand Hygiene Tools and Resources

• SAVE LIVES – clean your hands campaign

The Need for Better Hand Hygiene in Healthcare

Hand hygiene, a very simple action, remains the primary means to reduce the spread of infections.

Healthcare-associated infections, or infections acquired in health-care settings are the most frequent adverse event in healthcare delivery worldwide.¹

Hundreds of millions of patients are affected by healthcare-associated infections worldwide each year, leading to significant mortality and financial losses for health systems.¹

Of every 100 hospitalized patients at any given time, 7 in developed and 10 in developing countries will acquire at least one health care-associated infection.¹

Infection prevention and control measures, such as appropriate hand hygiene and the correct application of basic precautions during invasive procedures, can reduce HCAI by at least 50%.²

Compliance by healthcare workers with optimal hand hygiene in different health-care facilities has been shown to be to be less than 40%.^{2, 3}

The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends using an alcohol-based hand rub for routine antisepsis in most clinical situations where hands are not visibly soiled.

Proper hand hygiene, when demonstrated by leaders, has been shown to positively influence the compliance of others by up to 70%.⁴

¹World Health Organization (WHO). n.d. Healthcare-Associated Infections Fact Sheet. Retrieved July 10, 2019. <https://www.who.int>.

²World Health Organization (WHO). n.d. Slides for Education Sessions for Trainers, Observers and Health-care Workers (revised 2009). Retrieved March 17, 2020. <https://www.who.int>.

³Gautham, S., & Cahill, J., "National Patient Safety Goals. How 'User Friendly' is the Hospital for Practicing Hand Hygiene?:An Ergonomic Evaluation." The Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Patient Safety. 2004; 33 (3).

⁴Roth, V. "Hands that harm, hands that heal". 2006; Power point presentation, slide 33

If healthcare provider hands could talk

If healthcare provider hands could talk, they would tell you that:

1. They can offer hope, healing, and comfort

2. Then can create, protect, and defend

3. They can also be the route of transmission for pathogens.¹

• 80% of hospital staff who dressed wounds infected with Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) carried the organism on their hands for up to three hours!

• 60% of hospital staff, within 1/2 hour of contact with patients with Clostridium difficile infection, were contaminated without even having touched the patient, from merely returning drug charts to the ends of beds!

• In an ICU study, 40% of all patient-nurse interactions resulted in the same species of Klebsiella pneumoniae transmission to healthcare workers' hands, lasting up to 150 minutes, even with contact as slight as touching a patient's shoulder!

• Meanwhile, washing with soap and water virtually eradicated these organisms!

With your help, they can also make a difference by:

• Building hand hygiene into simple routines, such as when you use aseptic techniques when starting IVs or inserting catheters

• Practicing spontaneous, automatic hand hygiene activities when entering and leaving the clinical setting

• Modelling optimal hand hygiene activities to peers and in the home to your family members

¹ Stone, S.P. J of the Royal Soc. Medicine. 2001; 94(6): 278-281. Reprinted by Mitka, M. in the Journal of the American Medical Association November 3, 2009. 302(17).

Proper Hand Hygiene Technique in Healthcare

Why?

• Healthcare-associated infections, or infections acquired in healthcare settings, are the most frequent adverse event in healthcare delivery worldwide.¹

• Hands are the most common means of microbial spread in healthcare.²

• Optimal hand hygiene is one of the most effective measures to reduce the occurrence of healthcare-associated infections (HAIs).

When?

There are some key moments for hand hygiene:

1. Before patient/patient environment contact

2. Before aseptic procedure

3. After body fluid exposure risk

4. After patient/patient environment contact

Where?

• The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends that hand hygiene should be performed at the point of care.

How?

• Clean your hands by rubbing them with an alcohol-based formulation when available.

• Alcohol-based hand rubs are faster, more effective, and better tolerated by your hands than washing with soap and water.²

• Wash your hands with soap and water only when hands are visibly soiled and whenever an alcohol-based formulation if not available.²

• Washing hands with soap and water immediately before or after using an alcohol-based hand rub is not recommended as this may predispose the individual to developing contact dermatitis.²

• If isolation precautions are in place, always adhere to the hand hygiene directions appropriate to those precautions. Never default to hand rubs where isolation precautions are in place unless the precautions specify that this is acceptable.

• The act of thorough and vigorous drying is an important measure that helps to eliminate pathogens from your hands.

¹ World Health Organization (WHO). n.d. Healthcare-Associated Infections Fact Sheet. Retrieved March 20, 2020.
² WHO Guidelines on Hand Hygiene in Health Care (Updated 2009)

Hand, Skin and Nail Care for Healthcare Providers

• Avoid using hot water to rinse your hands.

• After hand washing or hand rubbing, let your hands dry completely before putting on gloves.

• Take care of your hands!

  • Protective hand lotions and creams should be used at least daily to reduce irritant contact dermatitis.

  • Studies have shown that using hand cream improves the health of hands and has no negative impact on hand hygiene.¹

• Staff prone to allergies or adverse reactions should use alternative products.

• Do not wear artificial fingernails or extenders in the healthcare setting, particularly when in direct contact with patients.

• Keep natural nails short (0.5 cm).

¹ WHO guidelines on hand hygiene in health care (Updated 2009 Version).

¹ WHO: Prevention of Hospital Acquired Infections: A Practical Guide

²World Health Organization. (2009).How to Handwash. World Health Organization.

³World Health Organization. (2009). How to Handrub. World Health Organization.