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Hand Sanitizer Use: What Spots are
Missed Most Often by Healthcare
Workers?
By Shannon Barnet
H
ealthcare workers can follow all of the World
Health Organization's recommended hand
hygiene steps for using alcohol-based hand rub,
but still make mistakes and miss some areas of
their hands, according to a study published in the
American Journal of Infection Control.
Researchers sought to determine the quality of
the hand hygiene technique of healthcare workers
in real conditions. To do so, the researchers had
705 clinicians working their usual shis use an
alcohol-based hand rub with a florescent marker. e
workers' hands were then viewed under a UV lamp
to show the hand rub's distribution and the unrubbed
hand areas.
In their examinations, the researchers viewed
five areas of the workers' hands. Although all of the
study participants correctly completed WHO's hand
hygiene technique, they still missed some areas of the
hand.
Highlighted below are each of the hand areas,
listed with the average percentage of clinicians who
covered the area completely with alcohol-based hand
rub, starting with the area covered least oen.
1. umbs — 37.45 percent
2. Fingertips — 44.54 percent
3. Back of hands — 46.38 percent
4. Between fingers — 74.75 percent
5. Palms — 98.87 percent n
1 2 3
4 5
