Taking place on the 5 May, World Hand Hygiene Day 2022 recognises that a strong quality and safety culture will encourage people to clean hands at the right times and with the right products. Dawn Stevens discusses the importance of protecting healthcare workers’ hands, and the role this has in promoting hand hygiene compliance.
Our hands are one of the most important tools we have, enabling us to perform everyday tasks and roles at work and home. They undergo a significant amount of wear and tear over time, being exposed to lots of different environments and contaminants that can increase the risk of damage, so protecting them is vital, for an individual’s physical, social, and psychological wellbeing.
Skin irritation can be caused through continuous contaminants touching the skin, a repeated exercise involving the skin or the skin naturally being sensitive to those agents. In turn, this can cause an irritation that can be very painful, reduce function and affect someone’s quality of life.
An individual in pain due to dry, cracked skin that is inflamed, broken and weeping can be very distressing and a challenge to manage, impacting on their activities of daily living, including their ability to potentially work. This article will discuss how good hand hygiene can be achieved and maintained while protecting the skin’s natural pH and permeability barrier function.
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