Mr Matthew McQuilty1, Ms Trish Hurst1, Mrs. Belinda Henderson1,2,3
1Queensland Health, Herston, Australia, 2ACIPC, Hobart, Australia, 3WHO GOARN, Geneva, Switzerland
Biography:
Matthew is a Clinical Nurse Consultant who works in the Queensland Infection Prevention and Control Unit in Queensland Health. He has been a registered nurse for nearly 18 years. He has worked in infectious diseases as well as infection prevention and control during this time.
Abstract:
The Queensland Infection Prevention and Control Unit (QIPCU) faced the significant task of implementing revised statewide healthcare-associated infection (HAI) surveillance definitions across 120 facilities, impacting approximately 150 Infection Prevention and Control Professionals (IPCPs). Uniform application is crucial for rigorous statewide HAI data to appropriately prioritise prevention activities, especially when widespread consultation was not feasible.
To ensure broad awareness, multichannel communication and engagement strategies included:
• An extraordinary statewide meeting to introduce the changes.
• Publication of the revised surveillance definitions, implementation guides, and flow charts on a Microsoft Teams site prior to the implementation date.
• Targeted audience focussed email was disseminated to all IPCPs across the state detailing where to access the revised definitions and providing a link to book into education sessions.
• Daily, recorded, education sessions ran for three weeks where one revised definition was presented each week with opportunities to ask questions.
Over 70 IPCPs attended the extraordinary meeting, and more than 180 participated in the education sessions. Post-session evaluations indicated high relevance (90%, n=20) and satisfaction with the revised definitions (>95%, n=18). 67% of respondents provided positive feedback about the education for implementation. QIPCU continues to support IPCPs during the implementation phase with virtual meetings and email support.
Implementing a statewide change of this nature requires intensive and varied strategies to effectively educate and engage stakeholders, ensuring widespread accurate and appropriate adoption.
Further work is necessary to identify and overcome barriers to clinician engagement in future evaluation processes.