Frequent, correct hand washing is the number one way to prevent the spread of bacteria and viruses that make us ill. How do you wash your hands? How often?
If you work in child care, food service, or health care you probably pass the proper hand washing poster several times each day. Do you ever bother to read it anymore? If you do read it, do you pay attention?
For those of who don’t work with these posters every day, and even those of you who do, here’s a brief refresher in the right way to wash your hands.
Look Around
When you walk into a restroom does it have paper towels or air dryers? If it has air dryers, does the water turn off automatically in the sink? If the answer is no, you’re probably better off with a waterless hand cleanser gel. If you do use a gel, continue rubbing your hands together until the gel is completely dry in order for the alcohol in the gel to do its germ-killing job.
If the bathroom has a paper towel dispenser that requires you to touch anything other than the paper towel to get it out, prepare your towel before turning the water on.
Water On!
Turn on the water, warm to hot water is preferred for germ killing. Get your hands wet to the wrist and keep your arms pointed down from the elbow so that water does not drip back onto the areas you are trying to clean.
Scrub Up!
If there is bar soap (unlikely in public, more common in homes) rinse it before you use it to lather up. If you’re using a liquid soap, just a little should do the job, but make sure you have enough to adequately lather to the wrist.
Scrub hands to the wrists and pay special attention to the fingernails, between your fingers, and the backs of the hands and wrists. I’ve seen numbers saying to scrub from ten to thirty seconds, with thirty seconds being the health care standard. I read a number of tips on how to time this but the best I found was to sing (mentally being the way that will get you the least odd looks) “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star” all the way through—this takes most people approximately thirty seconds.
It is the combination of soap and scrubbing that gets your hands clean, one or the other on its own is not enough.
Rinsing Right
Rinse hands under running water, again, being very sure that arms are pointed down from the elbow so none of the soap or soapy water runs back onto your now clean hands.
Drying Without Disaster
Don’t undo all the work you just did. Don’t touch the faucet! If it’s not automatic, get your prepped paper towel, use it to dry your hands then use the towel to touch the faucet and turn it off. Use an elbow to push the button on an air dryer, not your clean hands.
That concludes today’s hand washing refresher (grin). Until next time, stay safe!