Think inside the box
April 1st 2007 Swansea hospitals are set to lead the UK with an innovative way to cut the risk of healthcare associated infections by boosting hand hygiene: Deb's Glo-Germ boxes Using specialist equipment, staff and visitors will see with their own eyes clear evidence of why they may need to improve their handcleaning. Trained teams will be out on the wards with special Glo-Germ boxes which highlight with startling clarity patches on people's hands which have not been properly washed clean. The dirty areas – which may look perfectly clean to the naked eye – glow luminously under the boxes' ultra-violet lights. Infection Control Nurses at Swansea NHS Trust hope the boxes with reinforce the importance of thorough hand-cleaning, and encourage staff and visitors to scrub thoroughly. "People are often quite shocked when they use one of these boxes and see the visual evidence of what parts of their hands haven't been cleaned," says Delyth Davies, the Trust's lead Infection Control nurse. "Most infections are transmitted on the hands, so anything which helps to reinforce proper hand hygiene is really important." Deb is donating Glo-Germ boxes to the Trust to help launch the pilot Hand Hygiene Trainers project, believed to be the first of its kind in the UK. Each box will have two trained members of staff who will be based on hospital wards inviting doctors, nurses, healthcare workers and other Swansea NHS Trust staff to carry out a Glo-Germ test.The trainers will then teach staff how using the right hand hygiene technique for hand-washing, or using alcohol rubs, will help them keep their hands as clean as possible. Visitors to Morriston Hospital on the day of the Hand Hygiene Trainers launch will also be invited to have a go. Infection Control Nurses also hope to visit schools with the boxes, to get the hand hygiene message across as early as possible. The pilot aims to build on the work of the national Clean Your Hands poster campaign, which raised awareness of the importance of good hand hygiene. "Hand hygiene is so important that you have to keep reinforcing it," continues Davies."Other methods of infection control like gloves, changing aprons and specialist ventilation systems all help, but hand hygiene is absolutely pivotal. Showing people visible evidence has got to be a powerful way of driving home that message." Davies pointed out that a report by the National Public Health Service for Wales on Healthcare Associated Infections last month showed that Swansea NHS Trust's figures were below the UK average. (Swansea NHS Trust 6.7 per cent, UK and Republic of Ireland, 7.6 per cent).The new project, says Davies, aims to improve those figures even further."We have nearly 9,000 staff spread across several sites in Swansea, and we hope the 60 Hand Hygiene Trainers with their boxes will prove to be the most practical way of reinforcing this important message." The Hand Hygiene Trainers scheme will be assessed in 12 months' time to see what impact it has had on improved cleanliness. More articles from SCA Hygiene Products UK Ltd: | 
