Much Ado About a Fist Bump Study

hands touching illustrates post about fist bump study and germsBy Karen Roush, clinical managing editor

In this world of evidence-based care, is there anything to be said for common sense? Last week a study was published in the American Journal of Infection Control that found that a fist bump transmitted fewer organisms than a handshake.

Really? We know that hands carry untold numbers of organisms. We know that skin-to-skin contact transmits organisms. We know that duration of contact plays a role in how many organisms are transmitted. Did we need a study to tell us that hand-to-hand contact with less surface area for a shorter duration of time would transmit fewer organisms?

With the attention being paid to this study, you might think it was a major discovery. Why? Because it’s fun to talk about fist bumps versus handshakes? (David Letterman seems to think so; he recently opened his monologue with a joke about the study results.) Because we kind of like the visual of everyone, from the staid to the cool, walking around giving fist bumps?

Or perhaps, on a serious note, because we’re still struggling unsuccessfully to get people to simply wash their hands and are ready to jump on anything that mitigates the risk of transmission when they don’t? (Adherence to hand hygiene guidelines among health care workers remains low. Read our March 2013 CE–Original Research feature, in which […]

Time to Get Serious About ‘Handshake-Free’ Health Care?

By Shawn Kennedy, AJN editor-in-chief

Tombstone handshake, from Mel B, via Flickr. Tombstone handshake, from Mel B, via Flickr.

Last month in JAMA, Mark Sklansky and colleagues wrote a Viewpoint column, “Banning the Handshake From the Health Care Setting.” The article explored the idea and its feasibility, while acknowledging the importance of such rituals as handshakes in human interaction. In the end, the authors argued that it’s an idea we might need to start taking more seriously.

Is this an antisocial idea? That’s debatable, but it would certainly be a good step towards reducing transmission of infections—and one that’s probably long overdue.

It’s well known that pathogens are easily transmissible from health care workers’ hands, even if they practice hand hygiene in between seeing patients. But as the authors remind us, heath care workers are notoriously bad at doing so—they cite research showing that “compliance of health care personnel with hand hygiene programs averages 40%.”

And it’s no better in ambulatory care settings—an original research article we published in March 2013 that measured hand hygiene compliance by health care workers in an ambulatory care clinic found that, even after a campaign to improve adherence, compliance (as measured by direct observation) had only improved to between 32% and 51% at […]

Go to Top