The fact that patients may be feeling anxious about their hospital stay and visitors will be worried about their loved ones might well have an impact on their own hand hygiene compliance. This anxiety could cause patients and visitors to become distracted and forgetful of the need for good hand hygiene.
Handwashing reminders should therefore be in place everywhere so that all washroom users – whether they are staff, patients or visitors – are made fully aware of the need to wash their hands.
Posters and stickers will act as a timely reminder to everyone to wash their hands. It is vital that hospitals provide good hand hygiene facilities that are kind to the skin, that are conveniently located close to their likely point of use and that are never allowed to run out of soap and paper when an urgent hand wash is needed.
Mild hypoallergenic soaps and soft hand towels will be kinder to healthcare workers’ skin than harsh, abrasive alternatives and will help to curb incidences of occupational dermatitis. Tork offers a range of mild soaps and soft hand towels for use in healthcare settings such as Tork Sensitive Soap, which contains lipid-replenishing ingredients.
The Tork PeakServe Continuous Hand Towel Dispenser will guarantee a continuous supply of paper in healthcare settings because the unit caters for more than 1,000 washroom visitors between refills. It can be topped up at any time and each towel is delivered in just three seconds, speeding up the hand hygiene process.
Good training and reinforcement is also vital to ensure that healthcare workers and cleaners understand the importance of proper cleaning and hygiene. Essity offers a remote hand hygiene training module for healthcare workers. Tork Clean Hands Training invites users into a digital world where they are confronted with a series of scenarios in which hand hygiene needs to be carried out.
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The interactive simulation has been designed to make hand hygiene training more engaging and inspiring. Participants are confronted with a series of real work situations in a virtual world in which they can practice hand hygiene with their own hands. The training has been developed in cooperation with leading international hygiene experts and allows professionals to test their knowledge in a safe, simulative patient environment. They can also receive direct feedback and learn from their mistakes.
Hand sanitiser stations act as an important supplement to hand washing and these are now in plentiful supply in many hospitals. However, it is crucial that they are located in places where staff will have immediate access to them, and where visitors will notice them.
Tork offers recommendations on the correct placement of hand sanitisers to maximise their usage and ensure that they are not overlooked. Providing the right products in the right place is pivotal to improving hand hygiene practices, but reminding staff members to use them can be an added challenge.
Artificial Intelligence is increasingly being used in this context. Scientists are now looking at equipping medical staff with wearable devices that interact with hand hygiene systems to implement behavioural ‘nudges’. For example, a hand sanitiser dispenser could be programmed to glow or to emit a gentle chime when a healthcare worker enters a ward, reminding them to sanitise before approaching a patient.
Proper hand hygiene, when integrated with other critical measures, can prevent up to 50% of avoidable infections acquired during healthcare delivery, according to the World Health Organization. It is therefore crucial that all hospital staff, visitors and patients are encouraged to wash their hands frequently – and that any barriers to hand washing are recognised, understood and removed.
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