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Support for people working in health during the COVID-19 pandemic. Find information about how you can support yourselves and others, including consumers, teams and colleagues which complements and aligns with Ministry of Health resources.

Kia āta kōwhiri Choosing Wisely

The Choosing Wisely campaign seeks to reduce harm from unnecessary and low-value tests and treatment.

World Hand Hygiene Day 2024 World Hand Hygiene Day 2024 poster

Every year on 5 May, the World Health Organization (WHO) runs the Save lives: Clean your hands campaign to promote the use of hand hygiene in health care facilities and beyond. At the heart of the World Hand Hygiene Day is the message that all health care workers should clean their hands at the right time and in the right way.

The WHO sets a different theme each year and offers free resources for local use.

The 2024 theme for World Hand Hygiene Day was:

Promoting knowledge and capacity building of health and care workers through innovative and impactful training and education, on infection prevention and control, including hand hygiene.

The 2024 slogan for World Hand Hygiene Day to support this theme was:

Why is sharing knowledge about hand hygiene still so important? Because it helps stop the spread of harmful germs in health care.

Watch the WHO video for World Hand Hygiene Day 2024: Sharing your knowledge about hand hygiene: the opportunity of 5 May 2024!  

Resources

In addition to the resources available on the WHO World Hand Hygiene Day website, Te Tāhū Hauora prepared a quiz, screensaver, email signature graphic and pens that include the Hand Hygiene New Zealand logo. You can download the digital resources below.

Resources from the Australasian College for Infection Prevention and Control

As always, we love to hear how you are celebrating World Hand Hygiene Day in your workplace. If you would like to share your ideas and photos, please email us at hhnz@hqsc.govt.nz.

Promoting good hand hygiene practice

World Hand Hygiene Day is an opportunity to promote best practice with hand hygiene through education and information sharing. Here are some activities and ideas for World Hand Hygiene Day 2024.

Use your organisation’s hand hygiene results to develop activities for World Hand Hygiene Day

Use results from the Hand Hygiene New Zealand dashboard to look for opportunities to celebrate and improve hand hygiene practices in your organisation. 

Share your results widely across your organisation with both health care workers and consumers. 

Schedule hand hygiene auditing with real-time feedback on the day. Promote the collection of 5–10 moments by gold auditors during their shift and share the results at the end of the shift.

Inform and educate
My 5 Moments: the game

The WHO developed My 5 Moments: The Game to combine the fun, engaging and enlightening side of gaming with the scientific and theoretical approaches to hand hygiene improvement. It is designed to keep patients and health workers safe by improving hand hygiene practice in the real world.

Profile your leaders

Create a poster of the hands and faces of the hand hygiene leaders in your district and ask staff to match the hands with the right person. This will help staff recognise who they can go to if they have any questions. Provide morning tea for the area that gets the most right.

Song competition

Run a competition to see who can write the best song about the 5 moments of hand hygiene. The area with the best song wins morning tea for their team. 

Patient and whānau activities

Develop an activity that patients and their whānau can be involved in, for example, a word search on hand hygiene on meal trays, with information about when they should clean their hands when in hospital. You could also leave copies in the waiting room in the emergency department. 

Celebrating World Hand Hygiene Day in Aotearoa New Zealand 2024

Organisations around the motu promoted hand hygiene the week prior to Sunday 5 May. Photos from some of that activity are shown below.  

A collage of photos of people celebrating World Hand Hygiene Day

Te Whatu Ora districts celebrate World Hand Hygiene Day 2024

A collage of photos of people celebrating World Hand Hygiene Day

Te Whatu Ora districts celebrate World Hand Hygiene Day 2024

A woman is pictured holding a sign that says 'champions for infection prevention' next to a person in an inflatable hand sanitiser costume

World Hand Hygiene Day 2024 celebrations from across Aotearoa New Zealand

Published: 21 Mar 2022 Modified: 5 Jun 2024