Hand Hygiene Pilot at local Primary School

The Health Protection Research Unit (HPRU) in Healthcare Associated Infection & Antimicrobial Resistance (HCAI & AMR) supports Hand Hygiene campaign

Dr Raheelah Ahmad, Healthcare Management Lead at HPRU, Ellen Clegg, Education Project Manager and Oliver Blandy HPRU Research Assistant have been piloting the Hand Hygiene resources that they developed at North Primary School in west London.

They visited the Primary school and delivered a lesson in Hand Hygiene to a class of Year 6 pupils. The lesson aimed to help pupils understand that effective hand washing is important to minimise the risk of infection from potentially harmful bacteria. Pupils carried out a simple experiment to observe how bacteria can spread from person to person simply by shaking each other’s hands. Pupils also tested whether soap is an effective method for hand washing. 

Former teachers Dr Ahmad and Oliver Blandy have mapped the lesson and resources to the upper KS2 national curriculum for Science and PSHE and it meets the following criteria:

• Planning different types of scientific enquiries to answer questions, including recognising and controlling variables where necessary.
• Using test results to make predictions to set up further comparative and fair tests.
• Reporting and presenting findings from enquiries, including conclusions, causal relationships and explanations of and degree of trust in results, in oral and written forms such as displays and other presentations.
• Recognise the impact of diet, exercise, drugs and lifestyle on the way their bodies 

Pupils were shown and took part in the recommended 7 step hand washing guidelines. Feedback from the Science Lead teacher was positive and pupils were asked to teach someone at home their newly learned hand washing techniques.

The HPRU team will use this pilot and school experience to refine the Hand Hygiene schools resources.

http://handz.org.uk/