Hand washing is routine for most practitioners; so common in fact that it is easy to forget the importance of this simple routine. Yet, when we wash our hands before and after each visit, we protect our patients from harmful infections, and in this way help them to heal. Long ago I learned that hand washing can serve another healing purpose.

I used to work as a home health oncology nurse specialist and often encountered troubling situations. Many of the patients I visited had many disturbing issues. Frequently, I could not fix everything. After my visits, thoughts of my patients' distress, and my inability to solve their problems would haunt me for days. Sometimes those thoughts would distract me from the task at hand and interfere with my presence to the people currently in front of me.

A wise coworker suggested that I take advantage of the simple task of hand washing to release anxieties. She explained that after doing all that I could for the patient, as I washed my hands at the end of the visit I could quietly and with a clear intention wash away my anxieties. With this ritual, I could acknowledge that I had done my best for that patient and then turn the patient over to another healing power.

This simple ritual proved so helpful that I began to extend the power of intentionality--mindfully turning my intention toward a patient's well-being--to the beginning of each patient encounter. Washing my hands before starting care became an opportunity to focus my energy on the patient, and to let go of any outside distractions for the few minutes I had with the patient.

Over the years, I have come to believe that not only I, but my patients, benefited from my hand-washing-intentionality ritual. It became a kind of blessing that I offered my patients at the beginning and end of their care. Patients would frequently comment regarding the extent I had helped them and how I gave them a feeling of well-being. I credit these comments to the intentionality that I brought to the hand-washing ritual.

Now that I am retired from nursing, I continue a variation of the healing hand-washing ritual as I complete routine washing tasks. As I wash the dishes, I use it to pass a blessing to the next person who uses the mug I am washing. I intentionally slip in a blessing as I quickly wipe a grandchild's grimy face. I also use the ritual as I bathe my invalid mother to provide both of us with a much-needed blessing.

This simple ritual of washing our hands can mindfully turn our intention toward a patient's well-being and help focus on each patient encounter.

These simple tasks, which we mindlessly do or even complain about, can be transformed. From hand washing before and after patient care to the simple washing tasks we do at home, we can turn these opportunities into intentional blessings.

Too simplistic, you say? Not according to nurse theorist, Jean Watson. Watson (2002) believes that when nurses make a conscious intention to be fully present to our patients, to intentionally bring whatever healing we can and to trust in the Life's Healing Power to meet the patient where we are insufficient, that holistic healing does occur. She advocates that nurses use intentionality to enhance nursing care.

So make sure you wash your hands!! You will not only prevent the spread of infection, but you also can use the hand-washing ritual to wash away your anxieties. And you can intentionally use handwashing to find "a blessing at hand."

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