Our staff are encouraged to use the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) 5 moments for hand hygiene for healthcare providers. The 5 moments are:
- Before touching a patient
- Before clean/aseptic procedures
- After body fluid exposure risk
- After touching a patient
- After touching patient surroundings”
Cleaning your hands is the simplest, cheapest and most effective way of preventing germs being passed from one person to another
Around one third of infections are preventable and our hospital wards all have hand sanitiser available for staff and visitors to help stop the spread of germs.
Cleaning your hands
Hand Sanitiser
Hand sanitiser is effective against most germs, and is the quickest and easiest way to clean your hands.
Apply sanitiser to palm of one hand, and then rub into palms, back of hands, between fingers and outside of thumb on both hands for at least 15 seconds or until dry.
When do you need to use soap and water?
- After visiting the toilet
- Before eating or handling food
- If your hands are visibly dirty
How to wash your hands
- Remove jewellery
- Wet hands under running water
- Apply soap and rub together, covering all surfaces of both hands for at least 15 seconds, making sure that all areas of both hands come into contact with the soap. Rinse of all the soap and dry well patting the skin rather than rubbing.
Soaper Heroes campaign
Our Infection Prevention Team has worked with hand hygiene partners Deb, to showcase new literature and branding across the children’s hospital wards and children’s emergency department at Leicester Royal Infirmary.
When hand hygiene is taught in primary schools, feedback from parents has shown that their children go home and teach the whole family about germs. We hope our new campaign will have the same effect.
What new materials will you see?
- Rebranded soap dispensers with pink or blue ‘soaper hero’ covers
- Rebranded red hand sanitizer dispensers with Children's Hospital logo
- More 'bus stop' notices to signpost people to hand sanitizers
- A full size clean your hands ‘lift wrap’ on one of the Balmoral lift doors
- Colouring/activity books, stickers and hand cleaning certificates for play therapists to use as educational materials.
- When to wash your hands posters
- The soaper hero video on screens in waiting areas in the Children’s Hospital
Or Click here to watch the Soaper Heroes video on YouTube
UHL Hand Hygiene Rap
If you want a fun and interactive way to learn more about the importance of hand hygiene, why not take five minutes to watch our brilliant ‘UHL Hand Hygiene Rap’, a clever parody of Ice, Ice Baby written and performed by matron, Victoria Cartwight and her team!
