Hand hygiene is widely recognized as an effective action to prevent the spread of infectious disease. An effective handwashing routine requires specific mechanical and postural steps to maximize the removal of transient microorganisms. Following these steps ensures contamination is dislodged and directed away from the body. Understanding the proper rinsing posture and friction techniques is necessary to achieve maximum hygienic benefit.
The Rinsing Posture: Directing Contaminants Away
The position of the hands during the rinsing phase is essential for effective hand hygiene. For a proper rinse, the hands and fingertips must be pointed downward toward the sink basin. This posture utilizes the force of gravity to ensure that the flow of water moves from the least contaminated area to the most contaminated area.
The water should flow from the wrists and forearms, which are considered cleaner, down over the hands and out through the fingertips, carrying microbes and residual soap with it. This technique prevents water that has washed over the fingertips—the area most likely to harbor germs—from running back up the arms. Allowing contaminated water to flow back risks dragging microbes back onto the already-cleaned surfaces of the hands. Maintaining this downward-tilted hand position throughout the rinse ensures that the dislodged contaminants are effectively flushed down the drain.
Essential Friction Techniques for Thorough Cleaning
Before the final rinse, mechanical scrubbing is necessary to lift and dislodge microorganisms from the skin’s surface. Applying soap alone is not sufficient; friction breaks up the fatty acid and lipid layers that bind dirt and microbes to the skin. This scrubbing phase should last for at least 20 seconds, a duration recommended by health organizations to ensure a thorough clean.
The scrubbing sequence must address all surfaces of the hands, including areas often missed, such as the back of the hands, the wrists, and the spaces between the fingers. A specific technique involves interlacing the fingers and rubbing the palms together. This should be followed by rubbing the back of one hand with the palm of the other, with fingers interlaced. To clean beneath the fingernails, rotational rubbing of the fingertips against the opposite palm is necessary. This ensures the subungual areas, which harbor many microorganisms, are cleaned.
Preventing Re-Contamination During Drying
The final step, drying, is important because wet hands are more prone to picking up and transferring microbes than dry hands. Water facilitates the transfer of bacteria, meaning any microbe present on a surface is more easily transferred to a moist hand. The proper method involves gently patting the hands with a clean, single-use disposable towel, starting at the fingertips and working upward toward the wrist.
After the hands are completely dry, the disposable towel should be used as a barrier to interact with potentially contaminated surfaces. This is primarily done to turn off the faucet handles, which are often contaminated from being touched with soiled hands before washing. Using the towel to open the restroom door or handle other fixtures before disposal minimizes the risk of immediate re-contamination.