Hand Washing Procedure To Prevent MRSA
Perhaps the single most important thing you can do to help protect your loved ones against MRSA is to teach them how to properly wash their hands. Most individuals do not wash long enough to prevent the spread of infections. You need to wash in warm soapy water for a minimum of 15 to 20 seconds every time you wash your hands. Proper hand washing techniques must be taught in the homes, schools, daycares, hospitals and nursing homes. Those who work with the preparation of food must be careful to wash hands prior to touching food, utensils or surfaces where food will be prepared.
It is essential to wash hands after using the bathroom, before as well as during and after food preparation, after blowing your nose, when ever your hands are visibly dirty and when ever you change a dirty diaper.
There are many times when we touch unclean surfaces and fail to wash our hands. We are always touching surfaces that others touch as we are in public places and then we touch our nose or mouth and bam, germs are transmitted into our body. You never know what surfaces have been coughed or sneezed on. There are many times when we touch a door knob, a desk, table or even a shopping cart bar that someone might have sneezed or coughed on. We are constantly coming into contact with germs that someone else left on surfaces.
The world is a very germy place and the best defense we have against all of these germs is to wash our hands as soon as we get home. In the meantime do not put our hands to our nose or mouth. Another good tip is to keep an alcohol hand rub in our purse or briefcase so that we can wash our hands or our children's hands when we know we have been in contact with others (shaking hands or holding hands) or when we have touched a hard surface that someone else may have touched. When using alcohol-based hand rubs (gels) remember to let it completely dry. Keep these hand rubs (gels) out of reach for children.
Proper Hand Washing Procedure:
Wet hands with warm water. Apply liquid soap or bar soap until it lathers. If you are using a bar soap it is important that the soap be allowed to drain or there will be a colony of bacteria living under the bar. Really scrub your hands well in between fingers, palms, top of hands and all over from fingertips to the wrist. Make sure you wash the thumb area and the top of the wrist. Scrub under your nails too as they can be very dirty places. You should scrub your hands for at least 15 to 20 seconds, that is long enough to sing the "Happy Birthday" song at least twice. At the end of 20 seconds you can then rinse your hands in warm water until all the soap is gone. Dry your hands with a fresh towel, paper towel or hand dryer. Paper towels should be thrown away and not reused. Before you throw away that paper towel, use it to turn off the faucet, flush the toilet or open door handles.
Washing your hands using the procedure outlined above and using the paper towel to turn off faucets, flush toilets and open doors will help you to stay germ-free.
