SAVE LIVES: Clean Your Hands
5 May 2020
Nurses and Midwives, clean care is in your hands!
Clean health care is among the most urgent challenges identified by the United Nations to be tackled in the next 10 years by the global community, in our race to meeting SDG deadline.
Therefore, clean care, including hand hygiene best practices, and the central role played by nurses and midwives in achieving this, is the focus of this year’s 5 May campaign. The idea has been to partner with the Year of the Nurse and the Midwife that WHO has declared for 2020, and to recognize their crucial contribution to strengthening quality health systems.
Year of the Nurse and the Midwife 2020
We are calling all health workers and other target audiences to join hands in celebrating and empowering nurses and midwives in the monumental work that they do to keep our patients, families, and their colleagues safe by preventing health care-associated infections.
2 in 5 health care facilities lack hand hygiene facilities at point of care - this is an ongoing challenge but there are simple, low-cost solutions to overcome this including in support of the safety and dignity of nurses and midwives. Hand hygiene is one of these and can only be achieved with the right things in place.
5 May 2020 calls to action
- Nurses: “Clean and safe care starts with you."
- Midwives: “Your hands make all the difference for mothers and babies.”
- Policy Makers: "Increase nurse staffing levels to prevent infections and improve quality of care. Create the means to empower nurses and midwives.”
- IPC Leaders: "Empower nurses and midwives in providing clean care."
- Patients and Families: "Safer care for you, with you."
Promotional activities proposed for 5 May 2020
WHO proposes the following activities for participation in 5 May 2020:
- Certificate of recognition for excellence in hand hygiene and IPC.
- Expressed government commitments to DG’s recommendations on hand hygiene and to the campaign.
- Health care workers #SafeHands challenge video.
- 5 May clap initiative to thank nurses and midwives.
- Song.
- See instructions on promotional activities here.
Related publications
Related links
Resources for 5 May 2020
Your 5 moments for hand hygiene care in a maternity unit
Nurses and midwives critical for infection prevention and control
Other campaign materials
Poster Maker
- Poster maker 1 (Introduction)
- Poster maker 2 (Poster materials)
- Poster maker 3 (Poster materials)
- Poster maker 4 (Poster materials)
- Poster maker 5 (Poster materials)
- Poster maker 6 (Poster frames)
Social media cards (Instagram)
Video
Webinar 5 - 19 May 2020: The special setting of long-term care facilities and the risk for COVID-19 spread: perspectives on prevention and control from WHO and the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)by Zee A Han, Aging and Health, WHO HQ and Amber Vasquez, International Infection Control Program, CDC, USA
Webinar 4 - 12 May 2020: Coronavirus infections among health care workers: what we know about COVID-19 and what we have learned from other outbreaks
SARS: Seto Wing Hong, University of Hong Kong Shenzhen Hospital, Hong Kong, China
MERS: Ziad Memish, Research Center, King Saud Medical City, and Al-Faisal University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
COVID-19: April Baller, WHO Health Emergencies, Geneva, Switzerland
Webinar 3 - 5 May 2020: 5th May 2020: celebrating nurses and midwives for clean care at the age of COVID-19, by Benedetta Allegranzi, IPC Hub, WHO HQ and Didier Pittet, University of Geneva Hospitals, Geneva, Switzerland
Webinar 2 - 28 April 2020: The SARS-CoV-2 virus modes of transmission and related IPC measures, by John Conly, University of Calgary and Alberta Health Services, Calgary, Canada.
Webinar 1 - 21 April 2020: A model hospital for COVID-19 patients management, by Didier Pittet, University of Geneva Hospitals, Geneva, Switzerland.
Thanking nurses and midwives and other healthcare workers for their service during the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Read how to participate here
The song, the instrumental playback file, the lyrics and instructions are included.
Recommendations to Member States to improve hand hygiene practices to help prevent the transmission of...
WHO recommends member states provide universal access to public hand hygiene stations and making their use obligatory on entering and leaving any public...
Articles
- The Crucial Role of Midwives in Preventing Maternal Sepsis: It All Started in a Maternity Ward
Journal of Epidemiology and Global Health; DOI:https://doi.org/10.2991/jegh.k.200325.002 - Hand hygiene and the novel coronavirus pandemic: The role of healthcare workers
The Journal of Hospital Infection; DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhin.2020.03.017 - The voice of nurses in hospital epidemiology and infection control: an example from the 19th century
International Journal of Infectious Diseases; DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijid.2020.04.030 - Promises and limitations of a digitalized infection control program
Journal of Advanced Nursing; DOI:https://doi.org/10.1111/jan.14390