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Monday 17 October 2022
16 to 22 October is Infection Prevention week, a good time to stop and remind ourselves of the five key moments for hand hygiene in the healthcare setting.
Hand hygiene as part of infection prevention is a high priority for all Mater People and essential to keeping our community safe.
It is important to us and to our patients, for all our teams to be aware of good hand hygiene practice, and these key moments.
As part of the National Hand Hygiene initiative (NHHI), the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care have released a series of resources to post an important reminder of the five key moments in hand hygiene, including a useful poster which you can download and print here for your own practice.
1. Before touching a patient
Before touching a patient and their immediate surrounding
To protect the patient against acquiring harmful germs from the hands of the healthcare worker
2. Before a procedure
Clean your hands immediately before a procedure
To protect the patient from harmful germs (including their own) from entering their body during a procedure
3. After a procedure or body fluid exposure risk
Clean your hands immediately after a procedure or body fluid exposure risk.
To protect the HCW and the healthcare surroundings from harmful patient germs.
4. After touching a patient
Clean your hands after touching a patient and their immediate surroundings.
5. After touching a patient’s surrounding
Clean your hands after touching any objects in a patient’s surroundings when the patient has not been touched.
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