Trust raising awareness of hand hygiene and cutting infection risk
27/04/2018
This article is more than six years old.
The Infection Prevention and Control Team at Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust are highlighting the importance of good hand hygiene to mark the global Hand Hygiene Day on Saturday 5 May 2018.
They're raising awareness through the week leading up to the day itself to spread the word on how hand hygiene helps contribute to a healthy hospital.
Key to this is the 'Five Moments' when healthcare workers should perform hand hygiene.
The Five Moments are:
- before touching a patient
- before clean/aseptic procedures
- after body fluid exposure/risk
- after touching a patient
- after touching patient surroundings.
Dr Tony Berendt, Medical Director at the Trust, said: "Infection prevention and control is a vital part of patient care.
"It's not only for our staff; good hand hygiene is something our visitors can be involved in, too. It helps stop the spread of germs at home, at school, and in the workplace."
Sam Foster, Chief Nurse at the Trust, said: "Optimising hand hygiene is an important part of infection prevention and control.
"Remembering the Five Moments, and ensuring everyone cleans their hands well and at the right time, are the simplest ways of preventing the spread of infection."
The Infection Prevention and Control Team are holding a series of events across the Trust's four hospital sites to raise awareness of the campaign. These include a light box which shows how thorough people's hand-washing techniques are, wearing T-shirts to remind people of the Five Moments, and a competition for the best informative display board on the wards.