Hand Washing

It is flu season, time for a refresher on hand washing and infection prevention. The skin is our first defense against infection. It acts as an outer barrier for our body. At the same time our skin is one of the many places that bacteria like to grow.

In 1975 The Center for Disease Control (CDC) published their first guidelines for hand washing. Today you can find scientific evidence from CDC, American Medical Association (AMA), The World Health Organization (WHO) and Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA), American Nurses Association (ANA) and many others all pointing out the importance of simple hand washing in preventing infection.

Why then do I see people not wash their hands in public restrooms? I think we are “I have to see it to believe it” type people. So perhaps this will help.


I will never forget in nursing school they had us come in the lab and run our fingers across a Petri dish. A Petri dish is lab container where bacteria will grow; it is where the lab puts the sample the doctor takes from you. In our case the sample was the germs on our fingers. Next they had us go and wash our hands and come back and put our fingers on another Petri dish. Lastly, we did a full surgical scrub and rubbed our fingers on a final Petri dish. We signed and sealed the dishes with tape and our signatures. Five days later we went back to the lab. I was astounded at the number of germs on fingers. What I could not see with the naked eye had been given what it needed in the Petri Dish to grow and it was covered with growing germs. After a normal hand washing it appeared that there was much less bacteria growing on the Petri Dish.

The Petri Dish above shows:

Section A is from hands that appear clean but were not recently washed.

Section B is after washing hands with soap and water.

Section C is after disinfection.

So now do you think your hands are clean? You do not see the germs until they grow. By the times the germs grow you may have spread an infection and never know it.

Our mothers taught us when we were children to wash our hands. We need to remember to do it regularly!

Before and after caregiving procedures, feeding, turning and contact with person caring for
Before and after eating
After touching raw meat, poultry or fish
After the toilet (even in your own home) or after changing diapers
After coughing or blowing your nose
Before making or eating food
After playing with animals
Before and after changing contact lenses
After playing outside or working out
After any activity that contaminates the hands
After visiting or caring for someone sick
After handling garbage
Any time your hands are visibly dirty

So what is the proper technique for hand washing?

Remove rings and jewelry

Wet hands totally with warm running water

Apply Liquid Soap

Sing and scrub - Sing Happy Birthday to yourself as you scrub all sides of your fingers, nails, thumbs, palms and the back of the hands.

Rinse totally with warm running water

Towel Dry - use paper towel to turn off the faucet