World Hand Hygiene Day 2025
At Nurse Maude, delivering safe, high-quality care is at the heart of everything we do. This World Hand Hygiene Day, we join the global call to action: It might be gloves. It’s always hand hygiene.
Hand hygiene remains one of the simplest, most powerful ways to prevent the spread of infections - protecting not only our clients, but their whānau, our staff, and our wider communities.
Why Hand Hygiene Matters
Gloves are important, but they are not a replacement for clean hands. Medical gloves can become contaminated just like bare hands — sometimes within minutes of use during routine tasks.
Research shows that up to 50% of healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) could be prevented through effective hand hygiene practices (WHO Global Report on Infection Prevention and Control, 2022). Yet today, millions of people worldwide still acquire infections while receiving care that could have been prevented.
In Aotearoa New Zealand, we can be proud of our progress:
- The national hand hygiene compliance rate for public health districts is 84.8%.
- However, even here, hand hygiene is still missed in
16.3% of cases when gloves are used.
(HQSC Hand Hygiene Report, 2023)
Each missed opportunity represents a chance where harm could occur - and highlights why hand hygiene must remain a consistent priority.
Glove Overuse and Environmental Impact
Gloves are a critical part of healthcare protection, but their overuse also creates significant environmental harm. During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the global healthcare sector was generating approximately 591 tonnes of personal protective equipment (PPE) waste every day (WHO, 2025) — much of it from disposable gloves.
Used gloves are classified as infectious waste, requiring careful handling and disposal. Whenever appropriate, hand hygiene without unnecessary glove use can help reduce waste and environmental burden while maintaining patient safety
A Global Goal for Safer Care
The World Health Organization has set an ambitious goal:
- By 2026, hand hygiene compliance monitoring and feedback should be a national standard in all major hospitals worldwide.
Today, only 68% of countries report having such systems in place — showing how vital it is to continue building strong infection prevention cultures (WHO Save Lives: Clean Your Hands 2025 Campaign).
Together, we can protect lives through clean hands.
Good hand hygiene saves lives. It protects patients. It protects whānau. It protects us all. Together, we are committed to safer care through better hand hygiene.
