Miss Lauren Lee1
1Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital, Australia
Biography:
I am a Clinical Nurse in the Infection Monitoring and Prevention Services team at the Royal Brisbane and Women's hospital. I am passionate about improving hand hygiene compliance through practical education and by fostering collaborative relationships to strengthen infection prevention and control across the hospital.
Abstract:
Background: A common misconception among non-infection prevention and control (IPC) nurses is that IPC nurses mainly focus on hand hygiene (HH) audits, however this is a small component of the overall IPC role. To address this knowledge gap, Standard 3 (S3) portfolio holders from all clinical areas of the healthcare facility were given the opportunity to register to attend a Shadow Day with the Infection Monitoring and Prevention Services (IMPS) team.
Method: An Expression of Interest (EOI) was circulated to all S3 portfolio holders and advertised via the hospital intranet. The program covered key infection control topics, including (HH) auditing, bacteraemia investigations, occupational exposure management, patient alert identification, and the role of significant organisms. Each Shadow Day was tailored to the participant's clinical area, aiming to enhance knowledge, skills, and resource utilisation.
Results: At the conclusion of the Shadow Day each participant was given a survey to fill out. 100% of attendees who completed the survey provided us with overwhelming positive feedback, commenting on how they will use their newly gained knowledge to drive S3 quality improvement (QI) in their clinical areas. The Shadow Days have become so popular they are booked out for the remainder of the year.
Conclusion: The successful implementation of the IMPS Shadow Day Program enhanced S3 knowledge among non-IPC nurses, motivating them to lead change and quality improvement initiatives in clinical areas. It also fostered stronger collaborative relationships with S3 nurses.