National Hand Washing Awareness Week

Posted 08 December, 2016 in Hospitals and Healthcare

National Hand Washing Awareness Week is upon us (every year it's the second week in December).

This is the perfect opportunity to kick off a campaign to remind your staff of the importance of hand hygiene.

Hand hygiene is a major issue in every organization but has the biggest impact on healthcare, food, and the hospitality sectors. 

Everyone knows they should wash their hands - but do they know the health risks associated with not washing their hands?

Here at SnapComms, we believe communication is the key to encouraging the right behavior. The right type of communication can ensure your staff messages get read, understood, and actioned.

So here are a few tips for ensuring your hand washing awareness messages have the biggest impact:

  • Start with a catchy slogan to engage staff with your cause, for example: "Be aware, wash with care!"

  • Remind staff of the health risks associated with poor hand hygiene. Knowledge is power so let staff know their responsibilities.

  • Use visuals to communicate a message, for example, a diagram showing how to wash your hands effectively, or the most commonly missed places in hand washing.

  • Use posters or digital signage around the building to act as a reminder for staff to wash their hands - especially in crucial places such as building entrances and bathrooms.

  • Staff surveys can be used to reveal system failures or concerns staff have around the ability to keep hygiene levels up to standard.

  • Use a variety of tools for communication as part of your campaign for the most impact. Sending your messages visually with videos for example as well as tools like SnapComms' Desktop Tickers serve as an effective way to remind staff of the importance of washing their hands.

Read more about how SnapComms' communication tools can help improve hand hygiene awareness here.  

This great infographic by TeacherCert is a great example of some interesting facts to help get your message across to staff about the importance of hand washing. These visuals could be used to inspire your bite-sized communications to inform staff and get them involved with National Handwashing Awareness Week.

National Handwashing Awareness Week Infographic
Via Certification Map


Related Resources:

To read more about hand washing from the CDC click here.

Hospitals and Healthcare

Sarah Perry

More blogs by Sarah Perry

Determined to help organizations improve cut through for employee communications, Sarah co-founded SnapComms in 2007. Within three years, SnapComms grew from zero to hero in the competitive sector of employee communication software, where it is now a global market leader.