International Infection Prevention Week 2022: A chance to raise awareness of hand hygiene best practice
This 16th – 22nd October sees the healthcare community come together to mark International Infection Prevention Week. After the past couple of years, where infection prevention has been high on the agenda, it remains crucial to maintain best practice and keep raising awareness so that we can all help to reduce the spread of germs in facilities.
Best practice in community care
In community care, we know we must all work together to help maintain the highest standards of hand hygiene in GP surgeries, dental practices, opticians, pharmacies and beyond. Best practice should go beyond you, as the healthcare professional or facility manager, and extend to helping your visitors and patients too. For example, in England GPs provide over 300 million patient consultations per year, compared to 23 million A&E visits[1], which underlines the high footfall that can be seen in community care spaces and the potential to help break the chain of infection in higher risk locations.
The highest standards of infection prevention and hand hygiene shouldn’t just be applied to hospitals and acute care settings; International Infection Prevention Week is a chance to help raise awareness of best practice and create a united approach to hand hygiene. You can find a range of free resources on our website here, which can be displayed around your facility to act as reminders and prompts for the key moments when hand hygiene is vital.
Hand hygiene myth busting
One of the primary modes of infection transmission is via the hands[2]. It is therefore important to understand that they are recognised as one of the first lines of defence when it comes to infection prevention.
However, after the intensity of communication around hand hygiene over the past couple of years, it can be hard to separate fact from fiction when it comes to hand washing and sanitising. Our Global RD&E Director Dr John Hines outlines some of his key myth busters below:
- “We're often asked if people should use hand sanitiser after washing hands with soap and water. I would say as a general rule, no - if your hands are visibly soiled, then washing with soap and water will provide very adequate hygiene protection.”
- “Alcohol based hand sanitisers work through an instant germ kill effect and they don't have any residual effect. So it's really important to sanitise your hands at each of the key moments where the risk of transmission of germs is high.”
- “Always use gloves in accordance with your healthcare system guidelines, always dispose of them correctly, and always remember to sanitise your hands at each key moment of risk of transmission of germs. Gloves should never be worn across multiple moments of risk, or between patients.”
You can hear more from John and learn more about his top myth busters here.
Our product recommendations
In busy community care environments, we know that you need to be able to rely on the hand hygiene products and systems in your facility, to ensure that they are effective, but also liked by your staff and patients.
Our essential products for healthcare settings are trusted to work and have been tested to high standards. You can be sure that our Healthcare Hand Hygiene Programme will be tailored to the requirements of your healthcare setting; the right products will be made available when and where you and your staff need it, to help improve hand hygiene compliance and skin care practice.
Our product range has been developed to match three key steps of a hand hygiene programme: washing, sanitising and moisturising. These steps help reduce the risk of spread of germs and maintain good skin health. To meet your needs, our Cutan healthcare products are formulated especially for high frequency use environments.
The 3 Step range includes:
- Washing – a range of effective foam and lotion hand wash products are available in both perfumed and perfume-free formats suitable for frequent use.
- Sanitising – our complete range of sanitisers meet all your needs and include foam, gel and alcohol-free formats. Our InstantFOAM® Complete sanitiser rapidly and easily rubs across hands, and features broad-spectrum activity with a non-drying formula ideal for healthcare settings.
- Moisturising – the use of moisturising creams is crucial when it comes to nourishing and conditioning the hands. Our creams help maintain good skin condition and are available for normal right through to sensitive skin types.
Click here to view our dedicated healthcare product range
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Visit us at IP2022
We’re exhibiting at the IPS Conference in Bournemouth from the 17th to the 19th October.
On our stand, we will be showcasing our Cutan® healthcare products which are specifically formulated to meet the needs of healthcare professionals and patients in high frequency use environments. When used in combination with each other as part of a 3-Step programme, they can help reduce the spread of infection and maintain good skin health through proper conditioning.
Visit us at stand 31 to find out how our solutions can help you and your team to maintain high standards of hand hygiene - more information on the conference can be found here.
