A culture of clean hands is vital in the efforts to stem the transmission of bacteria, viruses and other potentially infectious organisms.  This can be particularly important in health care environments, or environments that involve contact with or the preparation of food.  The lack of hand hygiene contributes to the spread of multi-resistant organisms and is recognized as a significant contributor to outbreaks of infection.  Hand hygiene is a responsibility shared by everyone.

This course will enable participants to:

• Describe what hand hygiene is
• Explain why hand hygiene is important
• Describe when hand hygiene is to be performed
• Describe hand hygiene methods and demonstrate the steps of all methods 
• Account for the factors that impact the effectiveness of hand hygiene