Published: 5 May, 2023

An infection prevention and control practitioner has increased knowledge and reiterated the importance of hand hygiene as part of an awareness day.

In light of World Hand Hygiene Day, Sarah Connolly, infection prevention and control practitioner, launched the hand hygiene compliance assessment, encouraged staff to adhere to the World Health Organisation’s call to actions and organised a quiz.

The awareness day is led by the World Health Organisation and this year focused on encouraging healthcare communities to minimise the risk of infections by improving hand hygiene knowledge.

Sarah Connolly, infection prevention and control practitioner, said since the pandemic it is more important than ever to promote good hand hygiene, especially within healthcare.

"Good hand hygiene saves lives every year when performed at the right time and in the right way; it protects patients, staff and those whom we come into contact with," she said.

"As part of the awareness event, we launched our new hand hygiene compliance assessment across all clinical settings. This will assure that high standards are being maintained in all settings and shows a commitment to improving hand hygiene and infection prevention and control at points of care.

"To increase knowledge within the organisation, we encouraged our people to comply with the World Health Organisation's call to action, love the five moments of hand hygiene, lead the way for clean hands, invest in health and join the movement.

"Finally, we tested our people's knowledge by issuing a pop-quiz. The quiz had a fantastic turnout, more than 70 members of staff took part and 82% answered all the questions correctly, which demonstrates the fantastic knowledge of our people."

Congratulations to Chris Pace, clinical practitioner in the Clinical Hub, who scored 100% on the quiz and was selected at random to receive a £25 gift voucher.

As an organisation, we will continue to promote good hand hygiene and provide our patients with the best possible healthcare.