The COVID-19 pandemic has brought new attention to the importance of hand hygiene. But, did you know one of greatest examples of the importance of Hand Hygiene took place during the Crimean War? In 1854 while working as a nurse, Florence Nightingale recognized a correlation between disease transmission and hand hygiene. She understood that a lack of diligent hand hygiene practices caused an increase in disease transmission. As a result, Florence instituted diligent hand hygiene practices throughout her hospital, which aided in the reduction of the hospital's mortality rate from over 40% down to 2% in just 6 months (National Women's History Museum, 2019).
Today the WHO, CDC and health care organizations throughout the world recognize Hand Hygiene as an important driver of Quality Care and infection prevention. Diligent Hand Hygiene with soap and water or alcohol based hand rubs are necessary to prevent the spread of infection.
Please take a moment to review
UHA's Hand Hygiene Policy. Managers are strongly encouraged to perform Hand Hygiene audits of staff on a monthly basis.
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