Why Don’t We Wash Our Hands?
Courtesy of the SMACC Podcast, my hand hygiene talk from SMACC Chicago has just been released… Enjoy!
Hand hygiene is widely regarded as the bedrock for the prevention of healthcare associated infections (HAIs). HAIs are among the biggest killers in modern medicine. Yet, hand hygiene compliance among healthcare workers remains woefully poor.
Why can’t we learn the lessons that Ignaz Semmelweis taught us nearly 150 years ago? If we can’t teach intelligent healthcare workers to wash their hands properly, what hope do we have as medical educators? This is both a patient safety and a medical education priority. Our patients’ lives are at risk and they deserve better. So, how can we change our patient’s microbiological cultures? By changing our culture.
The power, it seems, is in our hands.
References and Links
- CCC — Standard precautions
- CCC — Transmission-based precautions
- CCC — Handwashing in the ICU
- CCC — Hand hygiene
- NPR The Doctor Who Championed Hand-Washing And Briefly Saved Lives
Critical Care
Compendium
Chris is an Intensivist and ECMO specialist at The Alfred ICU, where he is Deputy Director (Education). He is a Clinical Adjunct Associate Professor at Monash University, the Lead for the Clinician Educator Incubator programme, and a CICM First Part Examiner.
He is an internationally recognised Clinician Educator with a passion for helping clinicians learn and for improving the clinical performance of individuals and collectives. He was one of the founders of the FOAM movement (Free Open-Access Medical education) has been recognised for his contributions to education with awards from ANZICS, ANZAHPE, and ACEM.
His one great achievement is being the father of three amazing children.
On Bluesky, he is @precordialthump.bsky.social and on the site that Elon has screwed up, he is @precordialthump.
| INTENSIVE | RAGE | Resuscitology | SMACC