Miss Elizabeth Peters1
1Epworth Healthcare, Melbourne, Australia
Biography:
Elizabeth Peters is an IPAC CNC at Epworth HealthCare, where she has worked for several years. Beginning her nursing career in critical-care, developing a strong clinical foundation and a focus on patient safety. Lizzie has a particular interest in innovative approaches to infection prevention, including building capability within non-clinical teams.
Abstract:
Effective hand hygiene auditing and feedback is fundamental to infection prevention; however, auditing is traditionally led by clinical teams. This can limit workforce engagement and local ownership. Environmental services staff play a critical role in reducing healthcare-associated infections, yet opportunities for leadership and formal participation in hand hygiene programs has been limited. This initiative was implemented within a private not for profit health service across Melbourne.
To deliver impact through capacity building, environmental services supervisors were mentored by an Infection Prevention and Control Clinical Nurse Consultant and trained through the National Hand Hygiene Initiative (NHHI) to become accredited hand hygiene auditors. This initiative focused on converting knowledge into action by equipping supervisors with the skills to conduct audits, provide timely peer-to-peer feedback, and identify compliance gaps within their own workforce. Supervisors led auditing activities within environmental services, while IPAC provided governance, mentorship, data validation, and targeted support in response to identified improvement areas.
This approach strengthened leadership capability among environmental services supervisors and embedded hand hygiene accountability within the workforce. Peer-led auditing improved engagement and acceptance of feedback, while audit data enabled IPAC to move from broad education to focused, evidence-informed interventions.
This initiative demonstrated that decentralising auditing responsibility can extend program reach and deliver meaningful impact without compromising governance. Empowering non-clinical leaders to contribute to infection prevention programs is practical and effective. Key lessons learnt include the importance of structured training, ongoing IPAC collaboration, and recognising environmental supervisors as leaders in hand hygiene improvement to support sustainable practice change.