related infections in general by up to 40%. WHO urges all healthcare workers to adopt its 'My Five Moments of Hand Hygiene' which states that healthcare staff should wash their hands before touching a patient, before carrying out any aseptic procedure, after exposure to body fluid, after touching a patient and after touching the patient’s surroundings. And the Sepsis Alliance advises frequent hand washing with soap and water followed by a thorough dry using a clean towel.
But while frequent hand-washing is crucial to preventing cross-contamination, around 70% of healthcare workers globally still fail to practise hand hygiene on a regular basis according to the WHO’s Clean Hands 2020 campaign.
The reasons behind this poor compliance include a shortage of time, the non-availability of products and a low level of understanding about the importance of good hand hygiene protocols. Some healthcare workers also complain of poor skin health due to frequent hand washing using harsh soaps and abrasive hand towels.
It is important then, to ensure that skin-friendly products are always available and that healthcare workers understand the importance of using them.
Mild soaps and soft hand towels make hand washing and drying a much more pleasant experience. For example, Tork Sensitive Soap is allergy-friendly and certified by ECARF, the European Centre for Allergy Research Foundation, while Tork Xpress Extra Soft Multifold Hand Towels are soft, absorbent and gentle on the skin.
The provision of a fragrance-free conditioning cream such as Tork Sensitive Moisturising Hand Cream will further help to prevent chapping and soreness when used after hand washing.
Besides being skin-friendly, all hand hygiene products should be easy to use to facilitate the process for harassed healthcare workers. The Tork Foam Soap dispenser has been designed to be particularly easy to use even for people with low hand strength, and the serves up to 1,650
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users with foam soap which ensures that it will not run out when a hand-wash is urgently needed.
In cases where hand washing is impractical or inconvenient, staff should be encouraged to sanitise their hands using an alcohol gel or hand rub. Tork Alcohol Hand Sanitisers are available in a range of formats designed for the medical worker’s convenience.
Staff should also be instructed on the optimum way of washing their hands. Essity’s own Tork Clean Hands Training module invites users into a digital world where they are confronted with a series of scenarios where hand hygiene needs to be carried out. Developed in collaboration with behavioural scientists and hand hygiene experts, the training aims to provide hand hygiene guidance in an engaging way.
Trainees take on the role of a nurse or doctor in a hospital unit where they are tasked with caring for several patients. Their results are then assessed on how far they comply with the World Health Organization’s My 5 Moments for Hand Hygiene. Tork Clean Hands Training is accessible free of charge online via any electronic device and is also available in a virtual reality format.
Research into finding new ways of diagnosing and tackling sepsis is continuing at pace. The year 2022 marked the start of a five-year US study into the role that artificial intelligence could play in Improving sepsis diagnoses and enhancing patient outcomes, for example.
The fight against sepsis has entered a promising new phase. But in the meantime, hospitals need to do what they can to remain vigilant and to improve hand hygiene and wound care in a bid to reduce the number of infections.
www.tork.co.uk/hygiene/good-hygiene/tork-clean- TOMORROW’S FM | 27
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