Everything to Know About Washing Your Hands

With Instructions for People in the Workforce

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Washing hands is essential to prevent the spreading of germs and diseases. Handwashing helps keep you and the people around you healthy. You should wash your hands when the risk of spreading germs is high, for example, before and after handling food, caring for someone who is sick, or after you use the restroom, sneeze, cough, or blow your nose.

Learn about handwashing, when it is needed as an employee, hand sanitizer, and more.

How to Wash Hands: A Visual Guide

How to Properly Wash Your Hands

Verywell / Tim Liedtke

The six essential elements to washing hands are:

  • Water: It is essential to use clean, running water whenever possible. Dipping your hands in standing water may lead to more germs.
  • Lather: Add soap and rub your hands to lather (make it foam). This helps to lift germs and debris from your hands.
  • Scrub: Aim for at least 20 seconds; it is the magic number to remove and destroy germs.
  • Details: Don't forget to scrub between your fingers and under and around your fingernails. These areas are easily missed.
  • Rinse: Use clean, running water to rinse your hands when possible. This helps keep your hands free of germs after lathering and scrubbing.
  • Dry: It may seem like drying your hands after washing is optional, but this is a crucial step since it is easier for any remaining germs to spread when wet.

How Long to Wash Hands?

Wash your hands for 20 seconds to remove germs and dirt. It may be helpful to sing "Happy Birthday" two times or hum or sing a different song at least 20 seconds long.

Turn off the water while lathering and scrubbing to prevent water waste. Use your elbow or a paper towel to turn the water off after rinsing to avoid germs on your clean hands.

When to Wash Hands

While washing hands throughout the day is important to avoid spreading germs, certain times are a priority, even if your hands don't look dirty.

The most important times to wash hands are:

  • Before, during, and after handling, preparing, or cooking food, particularly raw or undercooked meat, eggs, or seafood
  • Before and after eating
  • Before and after coming in contact with someone sick or with an open cut or wound
  • After sneezing, coughing, or blowing your nose
  • After coming in contact with any bodily fluid (e.g., vomit, stool, mucus, saliva, or blood)
  • After using the restroom or helping someone else use the bathroom, including changing a diaper or bedpan
  • After coming in contact with animals or their food or waste
  • After coming in contact with trash

Nearly 50 million Americans experience food poisoning yearly, which can be prevented with proper handwashing. Washing your hands helps to protect you and the people around you.

When Should Employees Wash Hands?

People who work in certain industries, such as healthcare and food service, must wash their hands regularly to ensure their safety and that of the people they meet. Sometimes, employees are required to wear gloves. Hand washing is necessary before donning gloves.

Healthcare workers and caregivers should wash their hands at the following times:

  • Before and after touching a patient, including between patients
  • Before and after a cleaning procedure
  • Before and after any medical procedure, including surgery and wound care
  • After coming in contact with a patient's surroundings or something they have touched
  • After being exposed to bodily fluids
  • After using the bathroom
  • Before and after eating or preparing food

Food service workers should wash their hands at the following times:

  • Before touching any food, food equipment, or starting work
  • Before and after putting gloves on
  • Before and after touching any animal product, especially uncooked meat, eggs, fish, and seafood
  • After using the restroom, smoking, sneezing, coughing, blowing their nose, eating, mopping, sweeping, or handling trash, using a telephone, or coming in contact with anything with germs

Does Hand Sanitizer Replace Handwashing?

Hand sanitizer does not replace washing hands with soap and water. Sanitizer use has been found ineffective in cleaning hands that are soiled, greasy, or have a high load of germs.

When choosing a hand sanitizer, it is best to get a product with 60% or more alcohol since anything less doesn't kill germs effectively. Avoid hand sanitizers and soaps with antibacterial ingredients since they are no more effective and can lead to antibiotic resistance.

Steer Clear of Antibiotic Soaps and Sanitizers

Antibacterial soaps and hand sanitizers can lead to antibiotic resistance, which happens when germs get used to the drugs or substances designed to kill them and learn to survive. This is a concern because it makes handwashing with antibacterial soaps or sanitizers less effective and can increase the spread of germs and disease.

Steps for Using Hand Sanitizer

Using the correct type of hand sanitizer, the right amount, and the proper application technique can help remove and kill germs. Opt for an alcohol-based hand sanitizer when soap and running water are not an option.

To use a hand sanitizer effectively, follow these steps:

  1. Apply enough hand sanitizer to cover your hands.
  2. Cover all parts of your hand, including between your fingers and under and around your fingernails.
  3. Continue rubbing the hand sanitizer until your hands are dry (about 20 seconds).

Summary

Regular and proper handwashing keeps you and the people around you safe and healthy. Correct hand washing includes wetting your hands with clean, running water, lathering with soap, scrubbing for at least 20 seconds, paying attention to details, rinsing the soap with clean, running water, and thoroughly drying the hands.

Each step is essential to get rid of germs. While hand sanitizer does not replace handwashing, a hand sanitizer with at least 60% alcohol can be used when handwashing is not an option.

12 Sources
Verywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read our editorial process to learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.
  1. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. When and how to wash your hands.

  2. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Frequent questions about hand hygiene.

  3. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Show me the science - how to wash your hands.

  4. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Keeping hands clean.

  5. U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Safe food handling.

  6. Tomas ME, Kundrapu S, Thota P, et al. Contamination of health care personnel during removal of personal protective equipmentJAMA Intern Med. 2015;175(12):1904-1910. doi:10.1001/jamainternmed.2015.4535

  7. World Health Organization. Hand hygiene: Why, how, and when?

  8. New York State Department of Health. Hand washing and glove use for food workers.

  9. Singh P, Potlia I, Malhotra S, Dubey H, Chauhan H. Hand sanitizer an alternative to hand washing—a review of literatureJournal of Advanced Oral Research. 2020;11(2):137-142. doi:10.1177/2320206820939403

  10. U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Antibacterial soap? You can skip it, use plain soap and water.

  11. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. About antibiotic resistance.

  12. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Hand sanitizer use out and about.

Ashley Olivine

By Ashley Olivine, Ph.D., MPH
Dr. Ashley Olivine is a health psychologist and public health professional with over a decade of experience serving clients in the clinical setting and private practice. She has also researched a wide variety psychology and public health topics such as the management of health risk factors, chronic illness, maternal and child wellbeing, and child development.