Thanks to the Friends District Nurses Have Another Handy Glitterbug.

Hand hygiene is clearly of crucial importance in health care, which is why the Friends were happy to pay £150 for District Nurses to have a third Glitterbug and ultra-violet Glowbag, for hand hygiene. In her request for the money Charlene Caws, Integrated Community Nursing Administrator, explained: “Many nurses have had to travel to St Mary’s from a base elsewhere to undertake hand hygiene training, or arrange for Infection Control to book a Glitterbug and Glowbag to collect. This involved much travelling time, better spent having patient contact, as well as being inconvenient and an added cost. Hand hygiene training was a yearly requirement. Each of the three bases comprised about 30 people, including student nurses and paramedic students. Now, because of the Friends, each base has its own Glitterbug and Glowbag.

Just in case you are wondering: A special lotion, GlitterBug, is applied to the hands and then washed off providing a visual way of testing, teaching and monitoring good hand washing techniques.When the hands are placed in the Hand Inspection Cabinet (Glowbag) any remaining GlitterBug lotion will fluoresce under the ultraviolet lamp demonstrating the flaws in the hand washing technique. The GlitterBug products provide a valuable tool for teaching proper hand-hygiene techniques.