Wash Your Hands (and Tell Your Patients to do the Same)

Staying healthy requires much more than getting enough sleep and eating the right food. If you want to avoid illness, washing hands properly is one of the most important things you can do. This simple act prevents the spread of disease and makes it less likely that one of your patients will contract an infection. It is not enough to wash your own hands regularly, however. You must talk to your patients about the proper technique for washing hands and explain why this simple task is so important for staying healthy.

As a healthcare professional, you know that washing your hands is important for staying healthy and protecting the health of your patients, but it is easy to rush when you are hurrying to meet with a patient or end your shift. Poor hand hygiene contributes to the spread of healthcare-associated infections, which put your patients at risk for serious complications and affect your ability to provide proper medical care. The World Health Organization reports that 247 people die from healthcare-associated infections each day in the United States, making this an important issue for healthcare providers at all levels.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released formal guidelines for handwashing in 1975 and 1985. The early guidelines instructed healthcare professionals to use antimicrobial soap before and after caring for high-risk patients or performing surgeries and other invasive procedures. The guidelines also recommended that healthcare professionals wash their hands with a non-antimicrobial soap between most of their patient encounters. The early CDC guidelines recommended alcohol-based products and other waterless antiseptic agents only if the healthcare professional had no access to a sink.

In 1995, the Association for Professionals in Infection Control released its second set of handwashing guidelines. This document discussed the use of alcohol-based products in more detail, instructing healthcare professionals to use them more often than the CDC guidelines had recommended. In 1996, an advisory committee released a recommendation that urged healthcare practitioners to use a waterless antiseptic agent or antimicrobial soap when leaving the rooms of people who had been infected with organisms such as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. Staying healthy is difficult, however, because the CDC reports that adherence to these recommended guidelines is low.

It is important that you tell patients about staying healthy by washing their hands properly, as researchers from Michigan State University have found that many people do not do so after using the toilet. The researchers observed men and women after they had used public restrooms in a Michigan town. More than 10 percent of the people observed did not wash their hands after using the restroom. Approximately 22.8 percent did not use any soap to wash their hands. A little more than 5 percent washed their hands for more than 15 seconds. The CDC says that about 50 percent of the 48 million people who get food-borne illnesses each year would not have become ill if they had followed handwashing guidelines.

Healthcare professionals have an important role in teaching their patients about staying healthy. This is one of those times where you must practice what you preach, as washing your hands properly can reduce the risk of healthcare-associated infections and minimize your own risk of getting sick. Adhere to established handwashing guidelines to aid patients in staying healthy and convince them of the importance of washing their hands.

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