Category Archives: Handwashing Saves Lives

Handwashing Saves Lives

World Record-Breaking Hand Washing!

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Last October, a hospital in India claimed their place in the Guinness Book of World Records for hand washing.

Image courtesy of Kswownews: http://www.qswownews.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Guinness-World-Record-in-hand-sanitization-e1493277263531-886×480.jpg

 

Kasturba Hospital, a unit of Manipal University, held a hand sanitation relay last October 15 in conjunction with Global Handwashing Day. One of the largest hospitals in India, Kasturba is the first medical college in Karnataka to be listed among the National Board for Accreditation of Hospitals (NABH), and is also listed by the Association for the Accreditation of Human Research Protection Programs (AAHRPP).

 

The attempt to break the previous Guinness record was part of an initiative to raise awareness about the importance of handwashing among health professionals. Not only did hospital staff and university students learn more about the importance of hand sanitation prior to any contact with patients, word of this simple practice spread throughout the community.

 

The record-breaking relay involved 3,422 people completing the task of washing hands throughout the day. The previous record was held by another hospital in India– Indraprastha Apollo Hospital in New Dehli– with 1,711 people having participated.

Image courtesy of NewsKarnataka: http://www.newskarnataka.com//fileman/Uploads/India/From%20the%20web/Kasturba_medical_college_5.jpg

 

Sources:

http://www.qswownews.com/2017/04/27/kasturba-hospital-manipal-university-enters-guinness-book/

http://www.brevis.com/blog/2016/10/global-handwashing-day/

Handwashing Saves Lives

Kindergartners In Medical School

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hand hygiene prevents infection

Kindergartners in Lebanon, Oregon, recently attended mini medical school at the College of Osteopathic Medicine of the Pacific-Northwest. The COMP-Northwest program, now in its seventh year, provides four medical demonstration stations for the students with opportunities to learn about heart health, the skeletal system, and hand-washing techniques.

 

To demonstrate how to get their hands clean, Jess Reynolds said to the kids, “Let’s scrub up like surgeons.” The COMP-Northwest employee simulated germs by utilizing a fake dye on the children. With this visual, the children got an idea of how long it takes to thoroughly and effectively wash their hands.

 

The students then headed to the “operating room” where one kindergartener played the role of patient as the other young students learned while removing cloth versions of organs. Another station allowed the children to look at an x-ray of a hand with a broken finger.

 

Event organizer and COMP-Northwest Associate Director of Clinical Education Jeannie Davis explains it’s a day to give these children their first day of college, and it helps alleviate fear of doctors.

 

These kids have learned the importance of handwashing is on par with skeletal structure and organ function. Teach the kids in your life the same with GlitterBug Potion.  

Sources:

http://lebanon-express.com/news/local/kinders-learn-about-medicine-during-mini-med-school/article_d82ba905-50d6-5e84-b4eb-7a96e777c83e.html

http://www.brevis.com/blog/2016/09/glitterbug-potion/

http://www.brevis.com/blog/2016/08/glitterbug-gel-a-primer/

Handwashing Saves Lives

World Hand Hygiene Day 2017

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May 5 is World Hand Hygiene Day. Today the World Health Organization (WHO) reminds the world to “Fight antibiotic resistance—it’s in your hands.”

 

Hand hygiene is at the core of effective infection prevention and control programs, and actions today serve as a reminder to continue, as well as improve, best practices in this area.

 

WHO is calling for health workers to clean their hands at the right times, building on hand hygiene improvement efforts made up to now. CEOs, administrators, and managers should support hand hygiene campaigns, and infection prevention and control programs.

 

If you work in the healthcare field, we want to hear from you. What improvements have you seen in your workplace in regards to hand hygiene? What more could be done? Please let us know on our Facebook page. And join the online conversation with WHO by using #handhygiene and #antibiotic resistance.

 

Sources:

http://www.who.int/gpsc/5may/en/

http://www.who.int/infection-prevention/campaigns/clean-hands/2017/en/

Handwashing Saves Lives

Hand Washing in Many Languages

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Accurate communication is crucial in providing health services. Employees in hospitals, clinics, and community health centers need to be able to reach individuals with limited English proficiency (LEP) through language and understanding of culture.

 

One helpful resource is HealthReach, which provides quality multilingual, multicultural public health information for those who provide health care for individuals with LEP. Brochures, videos, toolkits, reports, and fact sheets are available to help improve the quality of service and communication efforts between providers and patients.

 

Hand washing, of course, is crucial in protecting ourselves and others from illness. This 4-page handout explains in detail the proper procedure for washing with soap and water (and drying!), and also using sanitizer, in both English and Traditional Chinese.

 

 

Having the instructions in both languages ensures clarity for both parties in communicating information as central to health as hand hygiene.

 

More information is available, including information available for print or download in more than 15 languages, at https://www.healthinfotranslations.org/.  

 

Sources:

https://healthreach.nlm.nih.gov/document/621/Hand-Washing

https://healthreach.nlm.nih.gov/about-healthreach

https://www.healthinfotranslations.org/pdfDocs/HandWashing_TCH.pdf

https://www.healthinfotranslations.org/

Handwashing Saves Lives, Infection prevention

New Tool in Hand Hygiene: Kohler’s Touchless Soap Dispenser

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NEW Tool in Hand Hygiene: Kohler's Touchless Soap Dispenser

We at Brevis are natural proponents of tools used to increase the effectiveness of hand hygiene. Our GlitterBug Gel and GlitterBug Potion, together with our disclosure centers, do an excellent job of teaching proper handwashing technique and effectiveness. Our Hand and Nail Scrub Brush is ideal for hard-to-clean areas. We even have a Handwash Instruction Manual for quick reference.

 

Kohler, a global leader in kitchen and bath design and technology, has recently launched their “first-to-market” Touchless Soap Dispenser. In addition to a customizable setting selection for liquid or foaming soap, the dispenser features an LED light which illuminates for 20 seconds– the amount of time the CDC recommends for hand washing– before turning off.

 

A sensor on the dispenser preserves battery life and prevents soap from being wasted. A rubber ring on the bottom helps stabilize the dispenser on the countertop while also protecting the battery compartment. An anti-drip spout prevents soap from dripping onto the counter. It’s no wonder the Touchless Soap Dispenser is a winner of the 2017 Global Innovations Award, honoring housewares for product design excellence.

Brevis welcomes innovative handwashing products and applauds Kohler for It’s thoughtfully designed Touchless Soap Dispenser. Brevis products and soap working hand-in-hand to prevent the spread of disease.

 

Sources:

http://www.prweb.com/releases/2017/04/prweb14206504.htm

https://www.cdc.gov/features/handwashing/

https://www.brevis.com/products/139587/gbgel-glitterbug-gel-bottle?ref=/glitterbug/supplies

https://www.brevis.com/products/467162/gbpotion-glitterbug-disclosing-lotion-8ounce-pumpbottle?ref=/glitterbug/supplies

https://www.brevis.com/products/668582/gbx-glitterbug-disclosure-center-with-glowbar?ref=/glitterbug/disclosure-centers

https://www.brevis.com/products/771490/gbbrush-glitterbug-hand-and-nail-scrub-brush?ref=/glitterbug/supplies

https://www.brevis.com/products/220150/gbmanual-glitterbug-handwash-instruction-manual?ref=/glitterbug/supplies

Handwashing Saves Lives

Scrub Club

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An elementary school in Michigan has had a very interesting school year so far, resulting in more handwashing among the students.

 

A group of parents noticed frequent student illnesses; one child was sick eight times last fall, more than he’d gotten sick in previous years. His mother enlisted the involvement of other parents and the school principal to encourage frequent handwashing. Thus, the Scrub Club was born.

 

Each class has been given a caddy with a soap dispenser, refill soap bottle, laminated poster with handwashing instructions, and nail brush for use by the students. The class to use the most soap by the end of the week wins a pizza party, plus a $20 gift card for the teacher to use for the classroom.

 

While it’s too early to have concrete results from the Scrub Club initiative, it seems to have had successful effects. Teachers report fewer boxes of facial tissue being used, an indication of less sickness. And nearly all students say they are now more aware of the benefits of handwashing.

 

One second-grade teacher performed a memorable experiment, pretending to sneeze into her hand while covering that hand with red glitter. Giving the students high-fives and pats on the back resulted in the spread of the red glitter, which the teacher explained represents the spread of germs.

 

We love that glitter experiment and recommend using GlitterBug products to continue emphasizing the importance of handwashing to children and adults alike!

 

Sources:

http://www.ourmidland.com/lifestyles/article/Siebert-Scrub-Club-encourages-students-to-wash-11039325.php

https://www.brevis.com/glitterbug

Handwashing Saves Lives

Patient and physician co-washing may increase clinic hand washing

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Accountability.

And partnership.

We know that when we have both, good things usually occur.

The March/April 2017 issue of the Annals of Family Medicine discusses a new approach to outpatient hand washing involving that involves both partnership and accountability: patient and physician co-washing.

And preliminary studies show that this practice may increase hand washing.

Gregory A. Doyle, M.D. (from West Virginia University in Morgantown), and his colleagues tested a new approach involving patient and physician hand washing.
Clinicians offered sanitizer to the patient and used the sanitizer to wash their own hands in front of the patient.
Data were included from 384 questionnaires: 184 from phase 1 (pre-intervention) and 200 from phase 2 (post-intervention).

The researchers found that, according to patients, doctors washed their hands 96.6 and 99.5 percent of the time before examining them pre-intervention and post-intervention, respectively.

Overall, 98.7 percent of the time patients endorsed the importance of hand washing.

“Further research is recommended to determine whether ‘co-washing’ enhances clinic hand washing or hand washing at home by patients, and whether it can reduce infection rates,” the authors write.

Want more information about hand hygiene and overall health? Check out these book at brevis.com!

Handwashing Saves Lives, Infection prevention

Watch the First Annual GlitterBug Idol Handwashing Contest sponsored by Brevis Corporation!

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Did you know the mouth is the dirtiest part of the body.

A close second?

The hands.

Recently, Brevis sponsored the first first annual “Glitterbug Idol” handwashing competition.

“The goal is to educate everyone,” said Barry Short from Brevis , the company that organized this year’s inaugural event. “Most people think they’re a pro at hand washing after several years, but that is rarely the case.”

 

 

When they’re done washing, contestants rub their hands with GlitterBug Potion. Their hands are checked under a blacklight, which reveals residue of the lotion and, thus, any spots they’ve not cleaned.

It’s amazing how many spots are missed, Short points out. “Sometimes they’ll get the harder spots and forget the obvious, like the backs of their hands,” he says.

 

GlitterBug Gel and GlitterBug Potion are excellent products to aid in teaching proper hand hygiene to kids and adults alike.

Both are intended to show how effective your current hand-cleaning methods are, and in turn, both products teach better techniques for hand-washing.

 

Do you have any other fun ideas for teaching hand hygiene? Please comment below!

Handwashing Saves Lives

Hand hygiene hacks—how to make hand washing fun for kids!

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Good handwashing techniques are important to prevent infection.

Many adults would likely say they know how to wash their hands; after all, it’s something they’ve been doing since they were kids.

Most of these same adults would say children need to learn how to properly wash their hands.

But how do you make it fun for everyone, while preventing the spread of germs?

Check out Clutterbug‘s fun soap tutorial here:

So, now you have made it fun. But how can you tell if it was effective?

GlitterBug Gel and GlitterBug Potion are excellent products to aid in teaching proper hand hygiene to kids and adults alike.

Both are intended to show how effective your current hand-cleaning methods are, and in turn, both products teach better techniques for hand-washing.

Which product you need depends on how you’re cleaning your hands. If you mainly use hand sanitizer, you should use GlitterBug Gel. If you usually wash with soap and water, GlitterBug Potion is for you. 

So have fun—and be clean!

Do you have any other fun ideas on hand hygiene? Please comment below!

 

Handwashing Saves Lives

Paper towels, warm-air dryers, and modern jet-air dryers: which is most hygenic?

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We’ve all seen been there.

We’ve just washed our hands in a public restroom, and we are scratching our heads (figuratively, of course, as our hands are still wet) because we have two options for drying our hands: an air dryer or a paper towel dispenser.

Image courtesy of Pixabay: https://pixabay.com/en/hand-dryers-paper-dispenser-toilet-100786/

Which is better? And why?

This is a great question. The most hygenic way to dry hands has been a controversial area in the realm of hand washing.

For a long time, it was believed that hand dryers were the most hygienic means of drying hands (since it doesn’t require touching anything). However, the University of Westminster conducted a study in 2008 that suggests using paper towels could actually be more hygienic!

Image courtesy of Pixabay: https://pixabay.com/en/hand-dryer-air-hygiene-blowing-36896/

The study compared paper towels, warm-air dryers, and modern jet-air dryers. It concluded that warm-air dryers actually increased bacteria on the fingertips by 194%, and jet air dryers by 42%, while paper towels reduced finger pad bacteria by up to 76%.

Basically, the study showed that the air produced by the dryers could actually be spreading micro-bacteria!

(It should be noted that the study was sponsored by the European Tissue Symposium (ETS), a trade body representing 90 percent of Europe’s tissue industry, however. You can read more about it HERE.)

So, how do you prefer to dry your hands, and why? Let us know in the comments below!