IN – OUT – CLEAN – CONTAMINATED: A 4 word reframing of a hand hygiene education program
Katherine McKay1, Helen Marquand1, Gia Truong1, , 1Royal Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital, East Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
In this presentation we share both how we developed a new approach to hand hygiene (HH) education as well as the content of the program aimed at improving compliance at our small specialist hospital
Background
The importance of HH compliance is acknowledged, yet so too is suboptimal compliance among some professional groups. A specialist hospital in metropolitan Melbourne identified a consistent failure to meet target compliance in several HCW groups. The hospital has relatively few inpatient beds (n=30) but a large number of daily surgical procedures (av=40) and outpatient visits (500-600/day). It was decided that a new approach was needed.
Method or Actions
Initial data established a baseline and included metrics of:
•2022 NHHI HH compliance
•Staff survey
•ABHR availability survey
Results
A new HH improvement program was developed. Rather than the 5 moments, emphasis shifted to identification of the “patient zone” in a largely non bed-based setting and the use of 4 key trigger words: IN, OUT, CLEAN and CONTAMINATED to prompt the performance of HH via promotional videos, revised MyLearn packages, and a “talking walls” poster program focusing on key trigger language.
Conclusion
In response to a failure to achieve benchmark HH compliance rates across 4 out of 5 HH moments and for the majority of HCW groups a new approach to HH education and promotions was developed and implemented. Initial feedback is positive and post implementation data collection (Oct-Nov 2023) will assess efficacy.
Biography
Katherine McKay is a Clinical Nurse Consultant (Infection Prevention and Control) at the Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital and Eastern Health. She completed the Masters of Advanced Practice (Infection Control) at Griffith University with first class honours and more recently PDH at The University of Sydney on the topic of Video Surveillance for hand hygiene auditing and has recently co-authored several papers on the subject. Katherine also completed Post Graduate Studies in Critical Care Nursing and Clinical Nursing Education.