Miss Amy Blake1
1Monash Health, Australia
Biography:
Amy is an Infection Prevention Clinical Nurse Consultant at Monash Health in Melbourne's South East. She has a clinical background in Emergency Nursing across both public and private sectors. She is currently completing postgraduate studies in the infection control domain and has a particular interest in the promotion of hand hygiene practices.
Abstract:
Background
Effective hand hygiene is a key strategy in the prevention of nosocomial infections. Despite this, hand hygiene practices remain suboptimal without specific improvement initiatives. Microlearning is aimed at delivering targeted training to learners in ten minutes or less, in environments with competing priorities, emphasising key points thus enhancing information retention.
Method
Our 27-bed intensive care unit (ICU) was having consistent trouble achieving the Victorian benchmark of 85% hand hygiene compliance. Face-to-face education sessions were poorly attended and there was little engagement from clinical staff around hand hygiene compliance issues. A visual Six Minute Intensive Training (SMIT) tool was developed by infection prevention and implemented over a 2-week period focusing on the 5 moments, glove use, patient vs. healthcare zones and skin integrity. The tool was introduced by ICU nursing team members during daily handovers and team huddles, was prominently displayed on television screens at staff bases and disseminated via employee emails aiming to capture a wide audience.
Results
Following the 2-week SMIT tool roll out, the ICU demonstrated a significant increase in hand hygiene compliance. In the 10 months pre implementation, compliance rates ranged from 65-75%, rates have been consistently above 85% in the 8 months since implementation. Following the initial roll out, the SMIT tool has remained on display within the department for refresher learning.
Conclusion
The use of microlearning approaches such as the SMIT may be an effective educational tool in promoting proper hand hygiene practices and improving staff engagement levels in fast-paced dynamic clinical environments.