Ms Kerrie Taylor1
1Hunter New England Health, Metford, Australia
Biography:
Kerrie works part time as a Clinical Nurse Consultant for the Hunter New England Infection Prevention Service. Kerrie has an extensive background in emergency nursing and nursing in rural facilities. Kerrie is committed and strives for excellence in all areas of infection prevention and control.
Abstract:
Background
Cleaning of shared patient equipment reduces the transmission risk of pathogenic organisms resulting in healthcare associated infections. Monthly environmental cleaning audits do not measure cleaning of shared patient equipment, however observational audits showed dust, grime, dried liquid residue and blood over a six-month period in a busy Emergency Department (ED).
Method
Despite regular rounding and educating staff on a weekly basis from September 2024, there was no change. A conversation with the Critical Care Manager led the Infection Prevention Service (IPS) to write a short brief to trial red labels to improve compliance for cleaning shared patient equipment. The trial evolved rapidly and became a hot topic of conversation within ED. Staff went looking for the red labels on equipment to become the leader on the ‘red label tally board’. Incentives include chocolates, awards and coffee cards were draw cards for the staff to become very competitive to ensure their equipment was clean and to collect the most labels. Each label outlined the cleaning concern and once placed on equipment photographs were taken by IPS as evidence to feedback to staff.
Results
The red labels were implemented from January to March 2025. During this time significant improvement in cleaning of shared patient equipment was noted. From April to June 2025, IPS are continuing to attend observational auditing during rounding.
Conclusion
It is anticipated that ED staff continue to clean shared patient equipment as part of their daily practice and the consistency of clean equipment is observed during observational rounding.