For the past years the Management of Rivers State University Teaching Hospital has taken very seriously Infection Prevention and Control by developing policies, carrying out engineering adjustments and building capacity of the health workers.
One of the cheapest and easiest components of Standard Precaution, (a set of procedures and policies put in place to prevent transmission of diseases from blood, body fluids and other materials contaminated in the healthcare setting) is Hand Hygiene. This year’s celebration by the World Health Organization (WHO) was centered on Healthcare workers and facilities to achieve effective hand hygiene action at the point of care. This means that at the place where anyone in the healthcare setting is providing care for a client, they must ensure hand hygiene.
The Campaign Theme this year was – Achieving hand hygiene at the point of care. The Slogan was: Seconds Save lives – Clean your hands!
The call this year was to all healthcare workers stressing the need to clean our hands at the point of care. The WHO also beckoned on Facility Managers and Policy makers to invest in and ensure hand hygiene for all. It also stressed the need for Infection Prevention and Control practitioners to be the Champions and Mentors for clean hands at the point of care. Most importantly, the WHO encourages everyone…and that includes you; to make clean hands a habit because that protects us all!
Members of the IPC committee of RSUTH went round to all waiting areas in the clinics to educate and train patients on the importance and methods of hand hygiene, they observed patients practice the correct steps for hand hygiene. Hand hygiene has proven to be valuable to reduce diarrhea diseases and respiratory disease globally.
As a Hospital Management we encourage our staff, patients and other clients that come into our hospital to maintain high standards of hand hygiene, use soap and water, which is available at many hand wash stations in our hospital. Otherwise, you may you your hand sanitizer which is faster and should be easily assessable to you especially if your hand is not visibly soiled. Clean Hands Saves Lives, let’s protect ourselves, our patients and environment.
