COMDIS-HSD partners, Good Shepherd Hospital in Swaziland, rolled up their sleeves on Global Handwashing Day to spread the word about good hand hygiene. A team of 10 student nurses, together with staff from the hospital’s Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) team, demonstrated good handwashing practice to patients as they waited in the outpatients’ area.
Patients were also shown a video and given a leaflet explaining the importance of handwashing and encouraging them to use soap, wash often and wash long enough. Handwashing is the most effective and simplest thing you can do to prevent infections, including hospital acquired infections.
Patients were able to ask their own questions, such as whether running water is necessary as opposed to just using a bucket and dipping their hands in.
The event, which was fun as well as informative, coincides with wider work to establish a new IPC committee to provide stronger guidance on IPC adherence and improvements throughout the hospital. These will include developing the hospital’s infrastructure to ensure better access to hand hygiene facilities and ongoing improvements to sanitary facilities and ventilation.
COMDIS-HSD is also helping the hospital secure the necessary resources to ensure hand gel is available on every ward.
Read more about our IPC work here.