A hand hygiene and PPE roadshow is coming to clinical areas this week, to mark World Hand Hygiene Day on 5th May.

Colleagues from our Infection Prevention and Control team will be visiting teams with lots of information about the importance of handwashing for both patients and colleagues.

The team will also be bringing along a special light box, which colleagues can practice with to show areas that are commonly missed when handwashing. 

There'll even be a word search competition, with lots of prizes to be won. 

It's part of the IPC team's 'Magnificent May' - a whole month with an infection prevention and control focus.

There will be opportunities to discuss hand hygiene technique for colleagues and patients, plus appropriate use of personal protective equipment, including respiratory PPE. 

The team will visit all clinical areas on the main sites, plus community hubs during each week of Magnificent May:

• Week two will focus on invasive devices (lines, urinary catheters etc) and ANTT
• Week three will focus on information resources, training and the intranet
• Week four will focus on the transmission of infection and how we control different organisms including isolation

Throughout the weeks we will also be promoting two resources:  Keeping you safe in hospital patient leaflet and IPC standards for staff.

Gill Manojlovic, Lead Nurse for Infection Prevention and Control, said: “Hand hygiene is the single most important measure you can take to keep yourselves, your patients and your colleagues safe from avoidable infection.  Our focus on hand hygiene this week will highlight the correct technique and when hands need to be decontaminated, ensuring we all know how to get this right every time”  

Join in the conversation on Twitter, with the hashtag #CHFTHandwash.