Tackling hand hygiene and HCAIs

In this video, Rosanne Jepson discusses their approach to improving hand hygiene at the Queen Mother Hospital for Animals, within the context of antimicrobial stewardship.

Step 1.12 discussed the various challenges associated with implementing antimicrobial stewardship in regards to hand hygiene. Watch the video above to hear how the Queen Mother Hospital for Animals evaluated their current hand washing practices and decided what steps to take next.

They asked themselves the following questions:

• What hand washing/rubbing products should be used?
• Where should hand washing points be?
• When should we use hand hygiene?
• Who should perform hand hygiene?
• How do you educate a large hospital on hand hygiene?
• How can we make this a continuous and lasting change?
• Can we implement an audit of hand hygiene?

There is always room for improvement and it is crucial to undertake reviews of the facilities you have available for hand hygiene, the importance of hand hygiene across all staff and the time points that hand hygiene is particularly important at. We can take ideas about how to improve hand hygiene from human medicine.

The WHO and the NHS both have guidelines on hand hygiene:

• WHO hand hygiene.
• NHS hand hygiene.
• NHS guidelines on how to wash your hands.
• WHO hand hygiene brochure.

Use the comments section to discuss what you think the most important factor for ensuring good hand hygiene is.

Please find a downloadable copy of the PowerPoint slides used in the video in the downloads section below.