ACTIVITY NO.

5
EVALUATION OF HAND SCRUBBING

I. INTRODUCTION

The skin is sterile during fetal development. After birth, many bacteria for the rest
of his life colonize a baby’s skin. As an individual ages and changes environments, the
microbial population changes to match the environmental conditions. The
microorganisms that are more or less permanent are called normal flora.

Microbes that are present only for days or weeks are referred to as transient
flora. Discovery of thy importance of hand and skin surface disinfection in disease
prevention is credited to Ignaz Semmelweis in 1846.

Hospital procedures require personnel to wash their hands before attending a

patient and a complete surgical scrub – removing the transient and many of the resident
microflora – is done before surgery. In this experiment, we will examine the effectiveness
of washing skin with soap and water.

II. OBJECTIVES

After completing this activity, the students should be able to:

o evaluate the effectiveness of hand washing

o explain the importance of aseptic technique in the hospital

III. MATERIALS

Plates of Nutrient Agar (2plates per group)

Scrub brush
Bar soap or liquid soap, (bring one from home per
group)

IV. PROCEDURE

1. Divide your plates into 4 quadrants each. Label the sections of each plate A through
D. Label one plate “WATER” and the other “SOAP”. Indicate the soap you are using.
Also, include your Group number and schedule.

2. Do the “WATER” plate first. Touch section A with your fingers then wash well
WITHOUT soap. Shake off excess water and while still wet, touch section B.

NOTE: DO NOT dry your fingers with a towel.

3. Wash again and while wet, touch section C. Wash a final time and touch section D.

4. Use your other hand on the plate labeled “SOAP” wash fingers with soap, rinse,
shake off excess water, then touch section A.
5. Using brush and soap, scrub your hand for 2 minutes, rinse, shake off the excess
water, then touch section B.

6. Using the brush, again scrub your hand with soap for 5 minutes, rinse, shake of
excess water then touch section C.
7. Repeat the soap and brush scrub for 10 minutes before touching section D.

8. Incubate the plates inverted at 37oC for 18-24 hours.

 ACTIVITY NO. 5
EVALUATION OF HAND SCRUBBING

Name: Desarey Dela Cruz Rating: __________

Date: ____________

____________________________________________________________________________

Results and Illustrations:

1. Draw and label the entire procedure.

Separate the Petri dish into four quadrants.
Label all plates with the letter A through D.

Markdown on the first plate “water”.

 second plate write “soap”.

Naming each Petri dish will enable you

to determine your test samples.

With the first dish, open the cover

of the petri dish and lightly
 touch quadrant A with your dry finger.

Wet your finger without soap,

and shake it off to eliminate excess
water.
 Touch quadrant B with your wet finger as you open the
lid of a Petri dish.

To prevent bacteria, avoid wiping your hands with a

towel during this procedure.

wash again your finger, and shake it off

to remove excess water.
Touch the quadrant C with your wet
finger.

wash again your finger, and shake it off

to remove excess water.
 Open the cover of petri dish and gently
touch on quadrant D with your wet finger.

Once is all done you can now put it inside the incubator
with your petri dish labeled water.

Throughout the process, no soap is used, and only clean

water is touched on quadrants B, C, and D, with the
exception of quadrant A, which is treated with dry finger.
tips.
The preceding treatment is the “soap” petri dish.
Start dividing the area into four quadrants and
write the letters A, B,C,D in each.

With bar soap, wash your hands thoroughly.

 then rinse it with clean water.
Shake it around your hand to get rid of any excess
water.

Remove the lid from the second petri dish called "soap." Then
press your finger against quadrant A.
 Use Brush in scrubbing your finger for two
minutes.

As the two minutes are already through, wash your hand

with clean water.
 Shake your hand to get rid of the excess water.
Then place your finger in quadrant B.

Use Brush again in scrubbing your hand with soap

for five minutes.
 As the five minutes is already done, wash your
hand with clean water.

After rinsing your hand touch the quadrant C.

Use Brush again in scrubbing your hand with soap
for ten minutes.

Wait for ten minutes for it to end before cleaning it

with water.
After rinsing your hand with your finger touch the
quadrant D.

After rinsing your hand with your finger touch the

quadrant D.
REVIEW QUESTIONS

1. What is the rationale behind the 10-15 minutes scrub performed by the instrument nurse
and surgeon before every surgery?

Human hand is the most tool for caring. We use our hand as a tool for caring,
diagnose, cure, also touching the patient lives and using medical equipment that we might
not know if it contains microorganisms. The hands can also be the cause of
transamination of infection and critical factor in the spread of bacteria, pathogens, viruses
in causing disease. This is why surgical handwashing is designed to control infection and
the simplest way to remove bacteria. The purpose of surgical hand scrub is to wash off
debris and transient microorganisms from the nails, hands, and forearms, reduce spread
of microbial and to inhibit rapid rebound growth of microorganisms. In the field of nursing
or medicine its vital to perform the hand and arm scrub before entering the surgical
operation.

2. Enumerate the steps of surgical hand washing and indicate the rationale of each step.

STEPS/PROCEDURES RATIONALE

The sink is considered

Stand if front of the sink with your
uniform not touching the sink.
Turn on the water and adjust
its force.
Wets the hands from the wrist
area with fingers pointing to the
bottom of the sink.
With the bar or liquid soap,
lather hands thoroughly.
contaminated. Uniforms may carry
organisms from place to place.
Water splashed from the
contaminated sink will
contaminate your uniform.
Water should flow from the cleaner
area toward the more
contaminated area. Hands are
more contaminated than forearms.
Rinsing the soap first removes the
lather that may contain
 microorganisms.

Washes hands for 10 to 30

seconds with firm rubbing and
circular motions following the
correct sequence:
Rub hands palm to palm; Friction caused by firm rubbing
circular motion helps loosen dirt
Right palm over left dorsum with
and organisms that can lodge
interlaced fingers and vice versa;
between fingers in skin crevices of
Palm to palm with fingers interlaced;
knuckles, on palms, and backs of
hands, as well as the wrists and
forearms.
Backs of fingers to opposing palms
with fingers interlocked;

Running water rinses organisms

Rinse hands with water;
Dry hands thoroughly Use towel to turn
off faucet;
Dries hands and wrists with
hand towel. Use lotion on
hands, if desired.
and dirt into the sink.
This prevents the nurse’s cleaned
hands to be contaminated by the
faucet handle.
Drying the skin well prevents
chapping. Lotion helps to keep the
skin soft and moisturized.
3. Define normal flora.

The flora collects microorganisms (bacteria and fungi) located in every anatomical
location inside the human body. They also develop antibodies that could help protect
against microorganisms and strengthen our immune function; however, a few of these
antibodies may cross-react with standard tissue components. Normal flora plays a
significant role in producing vitamins and minerals for the human body to survive and for
the cell types to produce anti-bacterial substances such as fatty acids, peroxides, and
bacteriocins. Some natural intestinal flora, such as E. coli and Bacteroid, contain Vitamin
K in the intestine, which the body may have used.

4. Differentiate accidental flora from transient flora.

The resident flora (resident microbiota) is made up of microorganisms that live under
the stratum corneum's superficial cells and can also be found on the skin's surface.
Transient microorganisms do not normally replicate on the skin, but they do live and
sometimes multiply on the skin's surface.
 1. Draw, label and interpret results. Record your observations below the drawing

Colony growth results, after 24 hours.

When you wash your hand with warm water and disinfect it with soap,
you are effectively extracting bacteria and toxins from the area surrounding
your hand. The 5 to 10-minute hand washing process along with rubbing
the hands with the brush is critical because it destroys the germs and
chemicals around your skin. When you rinse your hands, washing them with
water helps eliminate germs and toxins from the skin. And if you wash your
hand in short duration without properly scrubbing the areas of the hand such
as palm, back of your hand, and finger there is a possibility that it will lessen
the effectiveness of removing the germs. Therefore, Handwashing with plain
soap and water reduced the presence of bacteria.