Hand Hygiene compliance -after 2.5 years of COVID who could really blame staff for giving up on hand hygiene
Leasa Giles1, Holly Dodd1, Amy How11Tasmanian Health Service, Launceston, TAS, Australia
Hand Hygiene (HH) compliance for the Audit Cycle 2, 2022 showed a reduction in HH compliance across Tasmanian Health Service – Hospitals North (down to 74%), a continuation of a 12-month downward trend.
Regardless of staff and overall hospital fatigue, as Infection Prevention & Control Clinical Nurse Educators we had to respond to this result and educate our health service’s way back to benchmark and beyond!
Developing an education plan to address low compliance included analysing data from the previous year to identify the problematic moments, staff designations, wards and external service providers issues. Time was also spent in the wards observing the staff practices in conjunction with the ward layout. Feedback from the Hand hygiene auditor training courses we have delivered, indicated ‘staff would never be able to look at hand Hygiene in the same way,’ incorporating all these factors we had our answer!
As an education team we utilised the ward Clinical Nurse Educators (CNE’s) and Portfolio holders to help deliver the education to ward staff. To achieve this, we developed an action plan, outlining our intent to provide:
-An action plan template for wards to document their education achievements and improvements
-4hr education sessions for CNE’s modelled on information from the hand hygiene auditor training,
-2hr auditor refresher
-Product availability audits
-Suite of resources for the educators to use when providing HH education.
It worked! Hospitals North compliance is 82%. Building sustainability into our HH practices requires our foot to remain firmly on the HH pedal.
Biography
Leasa is a Registered Nurse with 37 years’ experience, with a specific focus on ophthalmic surgery before moving to Infection Prevention and Control.
Leasa has completed a graduate certificate Infection Prevention and Control at Griffith University, and a certificate IV in training and assessment and certificate IV in sterilising services.
Experiencing both public and private sectors at tertiary facilities, regional hospitals and day surgery services in QLD and NSW.
Leasa currently works as an IPC Clinical Nurse Educator, employed by Tasmanian Health Service. Working in the current healthcare climate in Tasmania, the role is both challenging and extremely rewarding.