Miss Sacha McMillan1
1Canterbury district health board, Christchurch, New Zealand
Method: An integrative review was utilised to review published research examining IPC interventions for the cleaning and disinfection of the patient environment and shared patient equipment in hospitals.
Results: Analysis of the literature revealed three findings. Firstly, the right intervention and education content are required to achieve the intended outcome i.e. the type of intervention and approach to education had an impact on the success of the intervention. Secondly, monitoring cleaning effectiveness is essential such as using appropriate audit tools, cleaning checklists e.g. visual inspection of environment, surface monitoring of contamination. Thirdly, organisational engagement is required to facilitate change i.e. roles and responsibilities for cleaning, how to overcome challenges experienced when undertaking cleaning, engaging the multi-disciplinary team and promoting the cost savings associated with improving the cleanliness of the hospital environment.
Conclusion: Interventions which included in-depth assessment of and response to staff educational needs and barriers were more successful at achieving long termed sustained improvements in cleaning and disinfection guidance adherence. Substantial cost savings can be achieved by investing in additional cleaning staff to reduce the incidence of HAI.
Background: Healthcare associated infection (HAI) and patient colonisation with multi drug resistant organism (MDRO) cause significant burden on the patient and healthcare facilities through increased mortality, morbidity, length of stay and antimicrobial resistance (AMR). Understanding the Infection, prevention and control (IPC) interventions that most effectively strengthen staff adherence to cleaning guidance for the patient environment and shared patient equipment is an important step in efforts to decrease contamination of hospital environments.
Biography: Sacha Mcmillan is a Clinical Nurse Specialist Infection Prevention Control at Christchurch Hospital, Canterbury, NZ. She has an interest understanding what human factors violations prevent adherence to IPC guidance and what interventions/ resources can be developed to address these.