“Why is sharing knowledge about hand hygiene still so important?”. This is the official slogan of World Hand Hygiene Day 2024, which will be celebrated as always on May 5.
2024 marks the 15th anniversary of World Hand Hygiene Day. In 2009, the World Health Organization (WHO) launched this important day of action with the aim of strengthening the importance of hand hygiene for infection prevention. The 5th of May is a symbol for the fingers on our hands. This year, World Hand Hygiene Day is all about knowledge transfer. With the slogan “Why is sharing knowledge about hand hygiene still so important? Because it helps stop the spread of harmful germs in health care.”, the WHO emphasizes the importance of knowledge and information.
Scientific studies show that imparting knowledge, for example through training or feedback, leads to improved hand hygiene compliance among hospital staff [1,2]. A study by Dr. med. Andreas Glöckner at the BDH Clinic in Greifswald showed that targeted hand hygiene training using an electronic monitoring system from OPHARDT led to an increase in hand disinfectant consumption per patient day of more than 30 percent. During the same period, the number of nosocomial infections per patient day was reduced by 28 percent [2].
World Hand Hygiene Day 2024 pursues four goals
These results illustrate the positive effect of knowledge transfer in the healthcare sector and underpin the slogan chosen for World Hand Hygiene Day 2024, which is linked to four primary objectives.
- Strengthen learning approaches to enable implementation of innovative and effective training to empower health and care workers to improve hand hygiene and IPC at point of care with enhanced knowledge, skills and behaviours.
- Promote access to innovative hand hygiene and IPC training resources for health and care workers.
- Raise awareness about the importance of knowledge and learning on hand hygiene at the right times to prevent a range of infectious diseases.
- Encourage measurement and evaluation mechanisms to assess the impact of training and education on IPC standards and practices including hand hygiene, including their effect on the prevention of HAI and AMR.
In line with this, the World Health Organization has given the topic of “training and knowledge” a particularly high priority in its research agenda up to 2030.
OPHARDT Hygiene’s portfolio simplifies training, feedback and knowledge transfer for healthcare facilities
The innovative company OPHARDT Hygiene offers numerous digital solutions to optimize hand hygiene training and communicate feedback and knowledge automatically. A good example is the ingo-man® SmartNose. The smart outlet panel of the popular ingo-man® Euro dispenser uses a green LED to provide medical staff with direct feedback every time they disinfect their hands as to whether enough disinfectant has been dispensed. At the same time, the usage data is sent anonymously to the Kanary® hygiene software so that hygiene staff automatically receive valid information on hand hygiene behavior and can use it for targeted training.
As a long-standing member of the Private Organization for Patient Safety (POPS), which was established by the WHO in 2012, OPHARDT Hygiene also works continuously with numerous partners from research, science and industry to improve hygiene standards.
Sources for the article “World Hand Hygiene Day 2024 is all about knowledge”:
[1] Diefenbacher, S., Fliss, P. M., Tatzel, J., Wenk, J., & Keller, J. (2019). A quasi-randomized controlled before-after study using performance feedback and goal setting as elements of hand hygiene promotion. Journal of Hospital Infection.
[2] Graveto JMGDN, et al. (2018) Hand hygiene: nurses’ adherence after training. Rev Bras Enferm 71: 1189-1193. https://doi.org/10.1590/0034-7167-2017-0239
[3] Glöckner A. Elektronisches Händehygiene Monitoring System: Auswirkungen auf Compliance und Infektionen; 9. Nationaler Qualitätskongress Gesundheit, Berlin, 03./04.12.2015
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