Skin in the Game ep. 01: Why Cleaning Your Hands Too Much Can Make Them Dirtier

Skin in the Game is Fletch Rich’s science series. I run R&R Lotion, the company that makes this.

Nurses clean their hands up to 30 times a shift. That protects patients, but it can crack the skin’s barrier, and damaged hands carry more bacteria. In this five-minute episode of Skin in the Game, Fletch Rich walks through the science: what sanitizer does to a germ, what it does to your skin, and why nurses end up stuck in a weird trap.

What’s in the episode

• 0:00 Cleaning can make hands dirtier
• 0:16 1847: Semmelweis and the first germ-killer
• 1:04 How hand sanitizer works (alcohol and BZK)
• 1:50 Your skin is a brick wall
• 2:27 Nurses: up to 30 times a shift
• 3:16 The weird part: damaged hands carry more bacteria
• 3:59 The fix
• 4:41 What we make at R&R

For the day-to-day routine, read Why nurses’ hands crack in winter and how to stop it, including the moments in every shift to look after your hands.

Free samples and a free in-service for your unit

Our I.C. Hand Sanitizing Cream is alcohol-free, made with BZK, and puts the sanitizer inside a hand cream. Ask for free samples for your unit, or book a free 20-minute winter hand-care in-service for your team.

Sources

• WHO Guidelines on Hand Hygiene in Health Care (2009)
• CDC, healthcare-associated infection data
• Pittet et al., 1999
• Larson et al., 1997
• Voss & Widmer, 1997
• Cochrane review on preventing occupational hand dermatitis