Did you wash your hands?
Why wash your hands? Because your hands are your most important instrument!
Did you know that in everyday life 10% of people using washrooms do not wash their hands at all and only 5% of them wash their hands long enough to kill the germs that cause infections?
Whatever you did today, you came into contact with germs. Washing your hands is the most effective way to stop germs from spreading. Think about the others: One can catch a germ by touching any object, like handrails, toys or table tops, that was previously touched by a person who did not wash their hands and transfer the germs to another person’s hands. In the end it is easy for a germ on your hand to end up in to your mouth while eating.
You cannot wear rubber gloves all day long, but you can wash your hands and keep you and people around you in good condition.
Drying yourself after you wash your hands is important
Drying hands after washing is an essential component of good hand hygiene. The transmission of bacteria is more likely to happen from wet skin than from dry skin. The recontamination of hands is hugely reduced when you dry your hands effectively. Wet hands that touch a surface will contaminate a clean surface – or if we turn this around, dirty surface contaminates your wet hands easily.
Flu season is here, take these steps for proper hand hygiene to stay on track
- Before hand wash take of your watch and rings.
- Clean, short nails and healthy cuticles spread much less microbes than long and dirty nails.
- Hands should be washed at least for 20 seconds. Need a timer? Hum the “Happy Birthday” song from beginning to end twice.
- Washing hands with soap removes germs much more effectively.
- Dry your hands with cotton or paper towel after they remove 99.9 % of the bacteria on your hands.
- Keep the air quality good in the washrooms by using cotton towels. Air dryers in the washroom spread the bacterias up to 2 meters from the dryers.
- It’s important to take good care of your skin. Use always hand cream when finishing your shift.
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