Handwashing 201: Not Just for Beginners!

by Ethan Cumbler M.D., FACP, FHM

Do you know how to tie your shoes and wash your hands?  These are life skills we learned in kindergarten but it turns out that most of us are not using the most effective method to do either task.  Check out the brilliant TED Talk by Terry Moore on a stronger method to tie your shoes. You will probably discover you have been doing it wrong your whole life.  Similarly, a new study demonstrated that a six step method of hand hygiene works better than the way we typically go about cleaning bacteria from our hands. (Click here for the article.)

Now comes the scary part.  In the study, even while being watched, about a third of doctors and nurses did not use the technique correctly.  The CDC reports that historically health care workers wash hands only about 40% of the time as they come in and out of patient rooms.  To tackle a problem that has persisted for hundreds of years is going to take more than the knowledge of how it should be done.  To improve we need tools to get healthcare workers to do it right.  That is where leadership comes in.  In the 21st century we don’t need to rediscover the germ theory. We need to apply psychology and human factors engineering to lead a healthcare system where hand hygiene is done correctly every time.  If only it were as easy to know if your doctor or nurse had washed their hands correctly as it is to see if their shoes are still tied.

Original article: http://www.pressreader.com/belgium/the-wall-street-journal-europe/20160420/281857232712277