At the Hind Institute of Medical Sciences, Safedabad, the Department of Pediatrics celebrated Global Handwashing Day on 15th October 2016. A CME on “Handwashing in Healthcare setting” was organized for medical & nursing students.
Dr. Utkarsh Bansal, Assistant Professor in Pediatrics gave a very descriptive talk on the importance of handwashing. He told that using soap and water to wash hands can prevent a lot of diseases, because hands are the main carrier of many microbes. We can decrese the incidence of diarrhea, respiratory infections, swine flu and even Ebola virus infection by this simple measure. It will break the feco-oral chain of transmission of pathogenic organisms. He said that handwashing should be done for at least 20 seconds in community and 40 seconds in hospitals. Washing with soap is essential as it breaks down grease and dirt so it can be dislodged by the rubbing and friction when hands are washed, and then rinsed away- along with all the germs. He informed everyone that the transfer of pathogens from one patient to other patient which is known as Hospital Acquired Infection, can occur by the hands of health care workers if they don’t wash their hands properly. So adequate health hygiene by all doctors, health professionals and nurses is essentially important. Infection control requires team effort, so every health care worker should do proper hand hygiene. He told them “Share your care, not your germs” with the patients.
Intern students under supervision of Dr. Nyay Bhai Gupta demonstrated the wrong and correct way of Handwashing by a role play. All steps of proper handwashing were shown by them. All students promised to spread awareness about handwashing in the society. They were also showed videos of proper Handwashing by soap-water and hand sanitizer. Nursing students made beautiful posters regarding the event. Children wearing the cut outs of the official logo of global handwashing organization were the main attraction. Doctors made all parents attending OPD aware about importance of handwashing in day to day life. All promised to make handwashing a habit and maintain hygiene in the end. More than 250 students were present.
Tags: India, Hind Insitute
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