CNA Skills: Hand washing

Hand washing is one of the universal precaution that we need to do every time we are on duty in the hospital, at school or anywhere. How many minutes you spend when you wash your hands? How do you wash your hands?

If you are working as a nursing or a CNA do you have any procedures on how to wash hands properly?

I remember when I was taking the Certified Nursing Assistant course and one of the major skills that we need to master and demonstrate is the proper hand washing. Here's what I did :

1. Turn on water at sink.
2. Angle arms down, hold hands lower than elbow and wet hands and wrists thoroughly.
3. Apply soap to hand.
4. Lather all surfaces of fingers, hand and wrists.
5. Clean nails buy rubbing them in palm of other hand.
6. Rinse all surface of hands and wrists.
7. Use clean dry paper towel to clean all surfaces of hands, wrists and fingers.
8. Use the clean dry area of the paper towel used to turn off the faucet.

But there is one thing that I did not do right and the was before I started washing my hands, I wore my wedding ring and it felt off the sink. It was good that it does not went down to the sink hole! Then I remember what my instructor said: Remove all your jewelries before hand washing.

Image credit:
Hand Washing by CARDcanhelp
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