Hand Hygiene: Five Moments and Technique

Hand hygiene is the single most effective action a nurse takes to prevent healthcare-associated infection, yet it is also the most frequently missed. The hands of healthcare workers are the dominant route by which organisms move from one patient, surface, or device to the next. Because transmission is invisible, hand hygiene cannot be reserved for moments that feel dirty; it must be performed reliably at defined points in care whether or not contamination is obvious. The World Health Organization organizes these points into the Five Moments: before touching a patient, before a clean or aseptic procedure, after body-fluid exposure risk, after touching a patient, and after touching the patient's surroundings. Each moment protects a different person, either the patient from your hands or you and the next patient from theirs. Consider a brief case: you are the nurse who finishes adjusting a patient's IV pump, then reaches to reposition the pillow, then turns to document on the shared computer. Which action prevents transmission? Hand hygiene happens between touching the patient, touching their surroundings, and moving to the next task, because...