Rāngi Horoi Ringa
World Hand Hygiene Day 2023
Every year on 5 May, the World Health Organization (WHO) runs the Save lives – Clean your hands campaign to promote the use of hand hygiene in health care facilities and beyond. At the heart of the World Hand Hygiene Day is the message that all health care workers should clean their hands at the right time and in the right way.
The WHO sets a different theme each year and offers free resources for local use. The slogan for 2023 is ‘Accelerate action together. SAVE LIVES – Clean Your Hands’, which promotes the theme of accelerating action to prevent infections and antimicrobial resistance in health care. The WHO campaign also promotes a culture of safety and quality in which hand hygiene improvement is given high priority. Watch the WHO video for World Hand Hygiene Day 2023: Accelerate together.
World Hand Hygiene Day at Te Tāhū Hauora Health Quality & Safety Commission
Te Tāhū Hauora hosted a webinar for hand hygiene champions and others on 27 April. The focus of this webinar was quality improvement activity associated with the HHNZ programme. Guest speakers shared their experience of implementing local quality improvement projects focused on hand hygiene. Recordings from the presentations can be found here.
A new hand hygiene poster (translated into several languages), an email signature and a screensaver are available here.
Celebrating World Hand Hygiene Day in Aotearoa New Zealand
Organisations around the motu promoted hand hygiene on 5 May. Photos from some of that activity are shown below.
Te Whatu Ora districts celebrate World Hand Hygiene Day 2023
Te Tai o Poutini West Coast celebrates Hand Hygiene Day 2023. View the poster here.
Promoting good hand hygiene practice
Inform and educate
World Hand Hygiene Day is an opportunity to promote best practice with hand hygiene through education and information sharing. Te Tāhū Hauora Health Quality & Safety Commission's online learning and hand hygiene training web pages have links to the Hand Hygiene Australia education modules, which include training in The 5 Moments for Hand Hygiene and a module on hand dermatitis.
Suggested topics for this activity:
Correct hand hygiene technique
- Use an ultraviolet light and fluorescent lotion to demonstrate good hand-washing technique.
- Refresh any hand hygiene posters. The Hand Hygiene New Zealand (HHNZ) ‘how to use hand rub’ and ‘how to wash your hands’ posters are available to download in seven different languages.
- Use videos that demonstrate correct technique. The WHO have videos for both hand washing technique and the technique for using alcohol-based handrub.
Using gloves
- Gloves are often used inappropriately and can be a barrier for good hand hygiene practices. Use World Hand Hygiene Day to promote the correct use of gloves. Source information on this topic from the WHO glove use information leaflet.
- Use the WHO Glove Pyramid to aid decision-making on when to wear (and not wear) gloves.
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Video – How to put on and take off gloves correctly.
Monitor and provide feedback on local hand hygiene performance
- Schedule hand hygiene auditing with real-time feedback on the day. Promote the collection of 5–10 moments by Gold Auditors during their shift, sharing the results at the end of the shift.
- Share your local auditing results from the day widely across your organisation with both health care workers and consumers, celebrating positive results and identifying opportunities for improvement.
World Hand Hygiene Day at Te Tāhū Hauora Health Quality & Safety Commission
Te Tāhū Hauora will host a webinar for hand hygiene champions and others on 27 April. The focus of this webinar will be quality improvement activity associated with the HHNZ programme. Guest speakers will share their experience of implementing local quality improvement projects focused on hand hygiene. More details about the webinar can be found here.
A World Hand Hygiene Day 2023 poster (translated into several languages), an email signature and a screensaver will be launched towards the end of April.
Global Handwashing Day
Global Handwashing Day was founded by the Global Handwashing Partnership in 2008 and is celebrated annually on 15 October. It aims to increase awareness and understanding of the importance of handwashing with soap as an effective and affordable way to prevent diseases and save lives across the globe. For more information, visit the Global Handwashing Day website.
Related resources
Last updated: 13th March, 2023
