Section: Evidence-Based Infection Prevention
Hand hygiene is a fundamental and vitally important component of reducing healthcare-associated infections (HAIs). Surgical hand antisepsis aims to suppress microorganisms to reduce risk of surgical site infections (SSI). Improving hand hygiene practices can lead to a reduction in HAIs. However, despite these findings, adherence to effective hand hygiene practices can vary widely and is often quite low.
Surgical services that want to improve and sustain high adherence to appropriate and effective hand hygiene should utilize multiple approaches to hand hygiene promotion.
This section discusses hand hygiene, its impact on methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and SSI prevention, and implementation of hand hygiene adherence monitoring.
Presentations
Presentation: Hand Hygiene in the Perioperative Setting
After reviewing the content of this presentation, viewers will be able to—
- Describe the key best practice recommendations for hand hygiene throughout the continuum of perioperative care​
- Discuss the benefits and challenges of implementing an effective hand hygiene program, including measurement methodologies
- Review the current recommendations for implementation of a comprehensive hand hygiene program to prevent MRSA transmission and infection
Documents:
One-Pagers
(PDF, 426 KB)
This one-page document provides a summary of proper hand rub technique.
(PDF, 457 KB)
This one-page document provides a summary of proper hand wash technique.
(PDF, 398 KB)
This one-page document provides a summary of five appropriate moments for hand hygiene during patient care.
(PDF, 184 KB)
This one-page document provides a summary of appropriate hand hygiene with postoperative wounds.
(PDF, 220 KB)
This one-page document provides a summary of appropriate hand hygiene for outpatient surgery care.
Tools and Resources
Surgical Scrub Training Videos
These training videos covering best practices for handwashing and the use of alcohol-based hand rubs were originally developed by the Johns Hopkins Hospital Department of Hospital Epidemiology and Infection Control. The videos are publicly available on YouTube.
- A step-by-step training demonstration of surgical hand scrub procedure, with a voiceover describing each step.
- Duration: 5:09
- Published Dec 14, 2018
- A step-by-step training demonstration of surgical hand rub technique, with a voiceover describing each step.
- Duration: 4:00
- Published Jan 16, 2020
- A step-by-step training demonstration of hand-washing according to WHO guidelines. Accompanying written instructions are displayed at the bottom. No spoken audio.
- Duration: 1:25
- Published March 26, 2019
- A step-by-step training demonstration of hand-rub technique according to WHO guidelines. Accompanying written instructions are displayed at the bottom. No spoken audio.
- Duration: 0:54
- Published May 8, 2019
