Tuesday 5th May 2020- World Hand Hygiene Day, is the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) annual global call to action for health workers. This year’s message is “SAVE LIVES: Clean Your Hands. Nurses and Midwives, clean care is in your hands” and there has never been a better time to promote this message and to celebrate the work of nurses and midwives.
The reason the focus is on nurses and midwives this year is because 2020 is the “International Year of the Nurse and Midwife” and so WHO wanted to recognise their crucial contribution to strengthening quality healthcare.
The Safeguarding Healthcare through Infection Prevention (SHIP) research group at Glasgow Caledonian University also want to celebrate and empower nurses and midwives in the incredible work that they are doing at this difficult time and at all times. This is why we decided to make a very short video to pass on the message about good hand hygiene and to thank the nurses and midwives for all the wonderful work they do everyday to protect their patients, their families, the public and their colleagues.
The SHIP group also support nurses and midwives through the research that we carry out, with a particular focus on applied infection prevention and control interventions such as hand hygiene in the National Health Service. In fact, the SHIP group were the first to produce evidence, in a randomised controlled trial that the WHO 6-step hand hygiene guidance is more effective in reducing residual bacterial load on healthcare workers’ hands than the 3-step technique. This technique can be seen in our video and more information can be found about it in our other blog pieces and here: https://www.gcu.ac.uk/hls/research/researchgroups/safeguardinghealththroughinfectionprevention/handhygienerct/
We released this video at 12 noon on the 5th May to show how to wash the hands correctly and to join the world in clapping in support of the invaluable work that nurses and midwives do to ensure clean care for patients, mothers and babies, including in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Join the Mission: teach everyone how to clean their hands correctly using the WHO 6 step technique!
You can promote the campaign by posting your photo on this selfie board and sharing on social media!