How to wash your hands like a doctor

Knowing how to wash your hands properly is really important. Washing your hands properly can stop you from getting sick as often. It can also stop you from making people around you sick. In fact, hand hygiene is one of the simplest and most effective ways to curb the spread of disease in the community. 

But if it’s so easy, why do people keep on getting sick? Well, the important details is that you have to wash your hands properly. It’s not enough just to run your hands under water for a few seconds then wipe them dry on your pants. For hand hygiene to be effective, it needs to remove all of the dangerous germs from your hands. For that to happen you need soap and water, and a proper cleaning technique.

We can learn a lot about washing our hands from people who do it tens, if not hundreds, of times a day: doctors and nurses.

Washing your hands like a doctor

Hand hygiene is even more important to doctors and nurses than to other people in the community. They work with sick people all day. Sometimes those people can make other people sick. Sometimes those people are so sick that they cannot afford to be infected with anything else, not even a cold. This means that doctors and nurses have to wash their hands thoroughly, every single time they touch a patient. They also have to do it if they touch anything in the patient’s room. That means that they need a proper system to make sure that their hands are really clean, every time they wash them.

It’s so important that the World Health Organization has made a comprehensive chart to show people everywhere how to properly wash their hands. You might have seen this poster in public bathrooms since the COVID-19 pandemic started. Unfortunately this chart is a little confusing, and some of the instructions aren’t as clear as they could be. 

Fortunately, our friends at Bug Control Australia and New Zealand have put together this great video showing you how to follow the WHO’s instructions easily and effectively.

Once you master this technique, you’ll be washing your hands like a pro!

More tips to wash your hands properly

  1. You have to wash your hands for longer than you might think. Some people recommend singing ‘happy birthday’ to yourself twice while washing your hands.
  2. Print out the WHO chart above and practice at home. The more often you do it, the easier it will be for you to remember all of the steps.
  3. Don’t test your handwashing ability by getting sick! A Verify Hand Hygiene test kit will show you immediately which areas you’re missing when you’re washing your hands.

It’s that simple to wash your hands properly and keep yourself, and your family and friends, safe from germs. The hard part is making sure that you’re doing a proper job every time. That’s why Verify Hand Hygiene have easy-to-use kits available. You can step out into the world knowing that you’re stopping the spread of disease with a clear mind — and clean hands!