Clean hands challenge, what the fuck is this about?

[NineInchNails]

So in two weeks time at work we will be having someone come in to do a clean hands challenge. My understanding is that this involves showing us how dirty our hands actually are using some machine.
Firstly, why bother? we have so much work to do, what on earth is the point?
Secondly, I probably have germy hands, I don't use anti bacterial anything! Gels, kitchen sprays nothing. The last time I was sick from work was two years ago and both my kids have not been off this year and only one of them once last year.
I think it's all ridiculous, dirt is good! Anyone with me or am I just a filthy cow

I was shocked how dirty my nail beds were when I did the same challenge in my training.

To the tune of Row Row Row Your Boat...

Wash wash wash your hands
Fronts and backs so clean
Fingernails and rub your thumbs
And get right in between.

I do germs and handwashing sessions in primary schools. :-)

Bertucci - maybe she has an underlying health issue? I clean my desk a lot, anti bac, use gels etc etc and was always ill. Not because of the anti bac though

Don't forget the backs of the hands/fingers and your wrists.....

Doesn't matter if you spray your hands with neat bleach if you've got poo on your thumbs/wrists! Technique is all. Antibacterial gel is useful as an addition to proper washing though.

Am aghast at person who doesn't wash their hands post toilet - do you touch the flush? The door lock? WHERE PEOPLE WITH ACTUAL POO ON THEIR HANDS MIGHT HAVE TOUCHED?!?! Blee! I always think that the hand wash facilities shouldn't have a door so you don't have to touch the same handle as dirty grommets who don't wash their hands!

My DGF used to work at Halls (the cough sweets one). They would have "hand hygiene checks" whereby their hands were pressed onto a Petri Dish and then tested in the lab.

It was actually a sackable offence if the test was a fail. This was for basically a boiling sugar factory.

So if you're in healthcare, YABU.

We do this as part of our training at work (health sector). You're given a cream to rub on your hands then sent off to wash them in the same manner you usually would, then you come back, stick your hand under a blacklight & they glow purple where you've missed while washing... problem is, no ones hands glow purple as everyone scrubs their hands within an inch of their life so they don't look like the class dirty bugger. Pointless exercise really.

I suspect it will be to remind people of the importance of washing hands after going to the toilet and so on.
You'd be surprised at how many people don't do it.
Google it. There are studies about this subject, including in the UK.

Hand hygiene is also important to prevent the spread of flu.

BUT
It shouldn't be about using anti-bacterial anything.

What is the world coming to? Why are we all scared of bacteria all of a sudden? The little buggers are everywhere, and being exposed to them is good for us!

The world has gone mad.

A few years ago our gp practice had a sign up saying gel was preferable to soap and water I was very sceptical about that!

We do this at work too - rub the gel in, check under black light you're doing that correctly then wash it off and check again you're doing that right.

We are taught hand gel Is OK for contact not involving an infectious disease, blood or bodily fluids, visible soiling of the skin with anything, aseptic techniques or when reverse barriering. All of those you'd need soap and hot water. To be honest I prefer soap all the time though, not keen on the alcohol gels!

Just had a practice with all the top tips
To the people who say they use the gels and sprays because they are ill a lot, could it be that they don't help?

I'm a HCP so I wash my hands to buggery every 5 minutes. I'm hardly ever sick despite working with sick people. Having scruffy hands is not some magic forcefield against getting ill.

Must just be the ready break then

The world has not gone mad Feesh people are dying of infections we cannot cure with anti biotics anymore as they are resistant bacteria. A few years ago if you were elderly and in hospital it was pretty likely you wouldn't leave without a serious infection or leave at all. Things have vastly improved - not by better medicine but by stopping people getting the infections

The main way all viruses are passed on is the oral-faecal route which basically means most people don't wash their hands properly after going to the loo- then in your office they touch the door handles, shared phones etc and then people get ill, have to have time off work, feel crap. I'm a nurse and do annual training on infection control so have it drummed into me! It's important for your own wellbeing unless you don't mind getting ill.

Nine - I'm immunosuppressed so will always be ill. The gels and cleaning desks at work are to help when people come in ill and cough and splutter everywhere next to me
At home I don't use anything antibac just hot water and soap

acquiescence the OP has said that she doesn't get ill. That's the main reason all this hygiene hysteria annoys me because as OP has said, it's the ones who are most hysterical about germs that seem to pick up all the bugs. I realise that's probably wrong. I predict the machine will show everyone's hands as dirty. Like when they bring the machine that tells you you're dehydrated, or give you those tablets to show the plaque on your teeth, or that your outgoing so are more than your income, your contents insurance is inadequate blah blah need I go on...

This isn't why we always wash our hands as soon as we get home.
If I go out for A meal, I will always go straight to toilets at restaurant to wash hands before eating. But majority of the population just seem to arrive and sit straight down without washing hands before meal. Especially disgusting if they have been on public transport

Artandco I don't go and wash my hands when I go to a restaurant, what if you just buy an ice cream or an apple and want to eat it at the park or whatever? Do you need to go and wash your hands first?
As pp said, I don't get ill so washing my hands all the time isn't going to improve my immune system.
Perhaps I'm being selfish though as I now recognise that others who are vulnerable may catch germs that I have inadvertently spread that didn't affect me.

Artandco - I have never understood washing hands before a meal for the sole reason I always eat my dinner with a knife and fork (unless it's a burger).

I wash my hands quite a lot and DH hardly ever does and I am really careful about doing it (I think anyway) and historically I am ill much more than him. I don't even go on public transport much. If someone could explain this to me, I would love to know.

Surely most flu and cold viruses are passed on my people rubbing noses and mouths then putting their hands on handles and so on, shaking hands etc. People picking their teeth on public transport then holding the hand rail [boak].
So avoid touching face when out and about seems to work for me. Even when I worked with patients I was rarely ill from colds because of the conscious effort to break the chain of transmission from host or surface to my own mucous membranes.

Why are we all scared of bacteria all of a sudden? The little buggers are everywhere, and being exposed to them is good for us!
not mrsa, tubercolosis, e-coli...

and antibiotics need to be reserved for life threatening infections.

In a food or hospital setting, of course. But this obsession in day to day life is utterly bonkers.

Its not bonkers people die from bacteria when they should not - because there is now no treatment for them as they all became resistant. If you haven't seen the statistics for HCAI and antibiotic resistant infection mortality rates then I suggest you google. Antibiotics are rapidly becoming completely useless. Long term more people will die of sepsis etc than ever before. If we continue down that path within 100 years we will have wasted the best medical discovery we have ever had - antibiotics! Because people thought washing their hands was unimportant! If you don't spread it, people won't catch it and need antibiotics. Which will preserve their resistance