Amy Sloan and Sharon Parnell use the GlitterBug GlitterBuddy, a tool to check how clean a peron's hands are.
Springdale discovers fun hand-washing education tool
Tuesday October 23, 2007 -- Deron Hamel
Springdale Country Manor has introduced a new tool to help promote hand-washing at the Peterborough long-term care home.

The GlitterBug GlitterBuddy is a device adorned with the cartoonish purple GlitterBug character containing a box-shaped device with a lamp that can detect unclean areas of people’s hands.

According to its website, the GlitterBug, a kit manufactured by the U.S.-based Brevis Corporation, is designed to make “hand hygiene education interesting, fun, and memorable.”

In fact, one staff member liked the idea so much she immediately began to utilize the device.

Personal support worker (PSW) Sharon Parnell was taken by the GlitterBug when she discovered it at the home’s nurse’s station Oct. 18.

“Man, she took ownership of it,” says Springdale’s administrator and director of care Maureen Imamovic. “She’s been in the home all day and she’s been having a lot of fun with the GlitterBug.”

The GlitterBug kit includes a fine powder which becomes invisible once on a surface. As part of an experiment, Parnell dabbed the powder on objects around the home such as doorknobs, keys to the staffroom, linen carts and pagers.

She also put powder on the pen and paper used to sign for in-services. After using the pen and paper, Parnell asked staff members to put their hands in the GlitterBuddy.

Any staff member who came into contact with the powder would have the residue on their hands.

If residue from the powder was detected on a person’s hands once stuck in the GlitterBuddy, it meant they had not done a good enough job washing.

“I actually set them up,” says Parnell. “I would say, ‘There’s my pen, there’s the paper I need for you to sign here’ and then I (asked them) to put their hands underneath the light.”

Even after only one day of using the GlitterBug, Parnell believes the device will become an important part of best practices in hand-washing education.

“I think it’s a very good learning tool and I highly recommend it,” she says. “It’s just a reminder that when you’re washing your hands, scrub up your arms, in your crevasses, under your nails, because that’s where germs can linger.”