proper hand washing question

[daycare]

I am about to get my first eval with our QRIS.

I was told by a friend who has done it in another county to really focus on disinfecting, sanitizing, hand-washing, as this is where most people lost the most points.

the instructions for hand washing say to scrub your hands for 20 sec with the soap and then rinse for 10. I have 12-14 kids. So this would take quiet some time to do for that length of time, especially if someone had to go to the bathroom. Oh and I forgot drying hands time. So we timed it last week and it took us 24 minutes to wash our hands according to the way the CDC states is the right way. Before we just used to sing the ABCs and be done.

So what we have been doing is having all of the kids line up and pump some foaming soap into their hands and make your hands turn white or bubble gloves. Then when they come into the bathroom their hands have already been scrubbed for more than 20 seconds and then we have them wet them, scrub for about 3 seconds and then full rinse for 10seconds.

my question is, do you think by pumping the soap into their hands while they wait in line would be an acceptable method for proper hand washing???

any other ideas? How do you guys do it??

BTW we only have access to one sink. we wash hands before breakfast as a group, before lunch as a group and after nap as a group. All other times it is individual hand washing after toileting.

group hand washing right now 3times through out the day = a little over an hour of washing our hands....this just seems crazy...

Ideas ideas ideas.....

[Blackcat31]

I am about to get my first eval with our QRIS.

I was told by a friend who has done it in another county to really focus on disinfecting, sanitizing, hand-washing, as this is where most people lost the most points.

the instructions for hand washing say to scrub your hands for 20 sec with the soap and then rinse for 10. I have 12-14 kids. So this would take quiet some time to do for that length of time, especially if someone had to go to the bathroom. Oh and I forgot drying hands time. So we timed it last week and it took us 24 minutes to wash our hands according to the way the CDC states is the right way. Before we just used to sing the ABCs and be done.

So what we have been doing is having all of the kids line up and pump some foaming soap into their hands and make your hands turn white or bubble gloves. Then when they come into the bathroom their hands have already been scrubbed for more than 20 seconds and then we have them wet them, scrub for about 3 seconds and then full rinse for 10seconds.

my question is, do you think by pumping the soap into their hands while they wait in line would be an acceptable method for proper hand washing???any other ideas? How do you guys do it??

BTW we only have access to one sink. we wash hands before breakfast as a group, before lunch as a group and after nap as a group. All other times it is individual hand washing after toileting.

group hand washing right now 3times through out the day = a little over an hour of washing our hands....this just seems crazy...

Ideas ideas ideas.....

Personally I don't think that is acceptable since the first thing on our chart for handwashing says to "wet hands" first before applying soap so I would think foaming soap on dry hands is not okay... I have NO idea but that is my what my first thought was.

As for how I do it, I do exactly what you normally do but in small groups. Little first since they have the least amount of patience. I guess I don't time them and we aren't judged or observed so severely during the QRIS stuff that we would get any points knocked off for not washing for a set period of time.... that is awfully nit picky...

Sorry I don't have any other advice but it does appear that "actual practice" is NOTHING like "written practice" in early childhood.

[daycare]

Personally I don't think that is acceptable since the first thing on our chart for handwashing says to "wet hands" first before applying soap so I would think foaming soap on dry hands is not okay... I have NO idea but that is my what my first thought was.

As for how I do it, I do exactly what you normally do but in small groups. Little first since they have the least amount of patience. I guess I don't time them and we aren't judged or observed so severely during the QRIS stuff that we would get any points knocked off for not washing for a set period of time.... that is awfully nit picky...

Sorry I don't have any other advice but it does appear that "actual practice" is NOTHING like "written practice" in early childhood.

that is what I was thinking too about the hands needing to be wet, but the foaming soap is pretty wet. My concern was also that their hands might drip soap onto the carpet.

I was told that the lady for our county actually uses a timer....OH BOY, what have I got myself into....

We also do the little kids first and then still monitor the big kids. Before this we used to use the buddy system and have the older kids help the younger kids, but we are having to retrain everyone so making sure that everyone is washing hands according to the CDC method.

[spinnymarie]

Yikes, 24m of handwashing sounds like a nightmare.
They can't possibly have thought that through --- what kids want to do ANYTHING for 24m, much less WASH HANDS!!!??
Line them up, spray hands with water bottle, then spray the soap on, then they rub then you rinse in the sink.
I'm sure that would also be unacceptable.

[daycare]

Yikes, 24m of handwashing sounds like a nightmare.
They can't possibly have thought that through --- what kids want to do ANYTHING for 24m, much less WASH HANDS!!!??
Line them up, spray hands with water bottle, then spray the soap on, then they rub then you rinse in the sink.
I'm sure that would also be unacceptable.

that was my other idea, but then again was concerned about all of their germs and dirt dripping onto my carpet. Unfortunately, the house is carpeted and they line up in the hall way near the bathroom.

[Annalee]

Coming from the pickiest state for QRIS :: I don't time my handwashing BUT, we have to sanitize the sink after each child washes their hands after they potty. When we line up to wash hands before lunch, we leave the water running till the last child has washed their hands to avoid having to sanitize after each child. I train my kids NOT to cut the water off at this time. When we are all finished, then I sanitize the sink. Another thing, here I teach my kids to walk to the table with their hands in the air not touching anything because if they touch ANTHING, we have to do the entire process AGAIN! Good luck!

[daycare]

Coming from the pickiest state for QRIS :: I don't time my handwashing BUT, we have to sanitize the sink after each child washes their hands after they potty. When we line up to wash hands before lunch, we leave the water running till the last child has washed their hands to avoid having to sanitize after each child. I train my kids NOT to cut the water off at this time. When we are all finished, then I sanitize the sink. Another thing, here I teach my kids to walk to the table with their hands in the air not touching anything because if they touch ANTHING, we have to do the entire process AGAIN! Good luck!

OMG wow...... well here in CA we are in a very serious drought, so we are not leaving any water running for any length of time for any reason. we even have had to install new toilets that are higher water efficient.

[Annalee]

OMG wow...... well here in CA we are in a very serious drought, so we are not leaving any water running for any length of time for any reason. we even have had to install new toilets that are higher water efficient.

I have never been discredited for not timing the 20-second handwash rule...assessors seem to pay more attention to the process- placing child hand under water/soap/scrub/rinse and the sanitizing the sink part.

[Crystal]

If it is at meal time, I would have a staff assistant work with children on washing hands, immediately sending individual children to the table to eat, and serving them as they arrive to the table, preferably with a staff member sitting at the table, greeting the children as they arrive at the table and self-serving family style. Also engaging in a "pleasant, social atmosphere".

One of the things to consider with the whole hand washing and then going to eat, is children should not have longer than a three minute wait without "activity" between routines/transitions, as this is part of the assessment. Also, in order to not have to sanitize between individual children washing hands, the staff assistant can turn the water faucet off, using a paper towel to do so, between each hand washing.

If it is not meal time, I would not have the whole group washing hands at the same time, as another part of the assessment is that routines are individualized based on the needs of the children and children should not remain in whole groups/complete routines as whole groups, for much of the day.

[daycare]

If it is at meal time, I would have a staff assistant work with children on washing hands, immediately sending individual children to the table to eat, and serving them as they arrive to the table, preferably with a staff member sitting at the table, greeting the children as they arrive at the table and self-serving family style. Also engaging in a "pleasant, social atmosphere".

One of the things to consider with the whole hand washing and then going to eat, is children should not have longer than a three minute wait without "activity" between routines/transitions, as this is part of the assessment. Also, in order to not have to sanitize between individual children washing hands, the staff assistant can turn the water faucet off, using a paper towel to do so, between each hand washing.

If it is not meal time, I would not have the whole group washing hands at the same time, as another part of the assessment is that routines are individualized based on the needs of the children and children should not remain in whole groups/complete routines as whole groups, for much of the day.

thank you for you feed back. Good to know that we only have to do it mostly with the focus on lunch.

we do have them sing songs while we wait in line or I/asst do read to them as they wait in line we used to play simon says in the line..

I think we are going to cut the groups down into two different age groups, starting with the smaller aged kids first....

[daycare]

Coach-

is it possible to split the kids into two groups 6 and 6'

lunch is at 1230

have group one go to wash hands at 12:15, it should take about 5 min to wash 6 kids hands, then return to the lunch tables with teacher and read a story.

then at 12:20 group 2 goes with the other asst and washes hands and reports to the table at 12:25, we read one more story and then start lunch right at 12:30???

[Crystal]

Coach-

is it possible to split the kids into two groups 6 and 6'

lunch is at 1230

have group one go to wash hands at 12:15, it should take about 5 min to wash 6 kids hands, then return to the lunch tables with teacher and read a story.

then at 12:20 group 2 goes with the other asst and washes hands and reports to the table at 12:25, we read one more story and then start lunch right at 12:30???

That should work!