How to Wash Your Hands
Handwashing is the most important thing we can do for ourselves and for the people in our care. Whatever we come into contact with may contain germs and we can become infected without knowing it, simply by touching our eyes, mouth, or nose before washing. Hand hygiene is an easy, inexpensive, and effective way to prevent the spread of germs and keep everyone healthy. Proper hand washing is especially important to do before eating or after you sneeze, blow your nose, or use the bathroom. In this video, we’ll show you how to wash your hands and give you a few pointers you may not have thought of.
When’s the last time you washed your hands?
How many times have you washed them today?
Clean hands are the cornerstone of infection control, especially if you are a caregiver. If you don’t wash your hands, you risk spreading germs to yourself, your family and other people you come into contact with! Ever shake hands? Touch a doorknob? Light switch? These are all ways of how germs spread.
Older adults are especially at risk because they are more vulnerable to infection.
We’ll show you how to wash your hands and give you a few pointers you may not have thought of!
To start, it’s best if nails do not extend beyond the fingertips. Long nails, whether real or artificial, can harbor bacteria and germs.
1. Make sure you remove all jewelry.
2. Turn on taps. Set a warm, comfortable temperature. Make sure the water isn’t too hot to prevent scalding.
3. Wet hands thoroughly with warm water.
4. Apply soap.
5. Vigorously lather hands-on all surfaces including both the back and front of hands, between fingers and under nails. This should take at least 15 to 20 seconds.
6. Now we thoroughly rinse all soap from hands.
7. Pat your hands dry with a clean towel or paper towel.
8. Lastly, apply a fragrance-free moisturizer to prevent dry skin.
When there is no soap and water available and your hands are not visibly soiled, you can use an alcohol-based hand rub or sanitizer which will have directions for use on the bottle.
1. Apply a generous squirt to dry hands
2. Rub onto all surfaces of hands, just like we did with the water & soap–and rub until they are dry.
We’ve included a care guide that goes into further infection control detail that you can check out in our description section.
Be sure to share this video to friends and family that may need a reminder and you can always visit our channel for more on caregiver tips and support
Resource Information:
Type: Video
Length: Short (< 5 minutes)
Topics: Caregiver Wellbeing/Self Care
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How to Wash Your Hands
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