Handshakes have long been studied as a means of infection transmission in hospitals. Previous reports suggest alternatives to shaking hands in healthcare facilities, such as fist bumps.
However, handshakes also may help improve patient perception of clinician empathy and compassion, so the elimination of the handshake requires deep-seeded societal and cultural change, according to a viewpoint in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
The authors of the viewpoint suggest looking to other countries and cultures for gestures of greeting that do not require the touching of hands. Such gestures, including waving the hand, placing the hand over the heart or bowing, communicate the cordial messages of the handshake without the risk of infection transmission, authors write.
Instituting such a change will require public education programs and media campaigns, the authors write, and further studies are required to confirm and better understand the link between handshakes and the transmission of pathogens.
However, "given the tremendous social and economic burden of hospital-acquired infections and antimicrobial resistance, and the variable success of current approaches to hand hygiene in the healthcare environment, it would be a mistake to dismiss, out of hand, such a promising, intuitive and affordable ban," wrote the authors.
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