Reminder: the 4 moments for hand hygiene

Do your staff know the four moments for hand hygiene?

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This may be easier to remember as “Clean your hands before and after contact with the patient or patient environment.”

Two important points:

1. Although the provincial hand hygiene compliance rate is an impressive 88% after patient/environment contact, the before rate is only 78% – which is below the target rate of 80%. Remind your staff, cleaning their hands BEFORE contact with the patient or patient environment is extremely important!

2. The patient environment counts too! Even if staff only touch the patient’s IV stand, bed rail or blanket… these can be contaminated.
A 2012 study of patients with Clostridium difficile infection* found that the acquisition of spores on gloved hands was as likely after contact with commonly touched environmental surfaces (ie, bed rail, bedside table, telephone, call button) as after contact with commonly examined skin sites (ie, chest, abdomen, arm, hand).
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If your staff need a refresher in hand hygiene, the Provincial Hand Hygiene Basics educational module is available on the PHSA Learning Hub; the more advanced BC Infection Control and Hand Hygiene online module also has a section on hand hygiene. You can also download our poster.

From the BC Infection Control and Hand Hygiene online educational module:

4 Moments poster:

*Source: Acquisition of spores on gloved hands after contact with the skin of patients with Clostridium difficile infection and with environmental surfaces in their rooms
Dubert M. Guerrero, MDa, Michelle M. Nerandzic, BSb, Lucy A. Jury, RNc, Sadao Jinno, MDa, Shelley Chang, PhDd, Curtis J. Donskey, MDc
American Journal of Infection Control, Volume 40, Issue 6, August 2012, Pages 556–558