MAY 7TH, WORLD HAND WASHING DAY

[06/05/2012]  

The annual worldwide campaign, "Save lives: wash your hands," launched by the WHO in 2009, consists of establishing a day aimed at "improving and maintaining hand hygiene." Within the framework of patient safety promoted by the WHO in various parts of the world, awareness campaigns on the importance of hand washing are being carried out. Cruces University Hospital is committed to these initiatives, which is why for several years it has organised numerous activities aimed at increasing the degree to which professionals adhere to this simple yet important hygiene measure.

One of these is the hand hygiene awareness campaign that included a training programme aimed at all hospital staff through various educational workshops in which the importance of this habit as a measure for reducing infections associated to healthcare activities was highlighted, and in which more than 2,000 workers participated between 2009 and 2011.

Simultaneously, there was a training session to educate numerous healthcare professionals on how to train the staff in their units. This entire training initiative was accompanied by an advertising campaign consisting of various contents that were distributed throughout the healthcare centre using posters and brochures.

Thanks to these important efforts, Preventive Medicine was awarded third place in the "Ideas Contest: Actions Focused on the May 5th World Hand Washing Day" for its hand hygiene awareness campaign aimed at healthcare professionals. The contest was promoted by the WHO and took place within the National Healthcare System.

To continue with these efforts, the hospital has made several initiatives available to its professionals, such as the creation of two training videos: “Incorrect Habits,” which aims to educate healthcare professionals in how to correct incorrect hygiene actions in hospital care that could lead to inpatient infections, and “Hand Washing,” which explains the proper hand washing technique as well as the various instances proposed by the WHO in which it is necessary to complete this process. In addition, individuals interested in completing a hand washing training session can register for one of the courses scheduled for this year by contacting the Continued Education department at formación.continuadacruces@osakidetza.net.

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