Author: Donna Nyack

Publisher:

Published: 2015

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13:

Healthcare-associated infections are a world-wide healthcare crisis afflicting countless people around the globe. In the United States alone, nosocomial infections kill a staggering number of patients and sicken countless others (Smith, Lokhurst, 2009). Naturally, this generates a great deal of concern in many health care settings and is a primary concern to those in the medical community, especially since the safety of patients is being compromised. While not all hospital-acquired infections can be prevented, the vast majority can. The startling reality is that studies have proven most of the infections acquired in the hospital setting are transmitted from patient to patient via the hands of healthcare workers (Smith, Lokhurst, 2009). Hand sanitization, has long been deemed a first-line of protection in the prevention of these infections. Of equal significance, has been the struggle for compliance with hand hygiene procedures that are vital to the safety of patients in the hospital. According to the results of a European hospital study, nurses' practice with hand hygiene is weak, and went on to reiterate, the compliance level of the staff is unacceptable (Malliarou, Sarafis, Zyga, Constantinidis, 2013). As evidence suggests, there is an urgent need to undertake robust methodologies in order to effectively increase hygiene compliance to safeguard patients. This written proposal presents the following; in the emergency department (ED), will the use of visual cues, in comparison to only standard education, actually increase hand hygiene compliance for the ED staff, within 6 months? There are many reasons why staff fail to clean their hands consistently and one identified barrier happens to be ineffective or insufficient education (Joint Commission, 2010). Standard education has been utilized in many hospitals and yet, it is well published that hand hygiene compliance rates remain inadequate. It is proposed that visual cues are needed to encourage health care workers to disinfect their hands in an effort to increase hand hygiene compliance. According to a 2014 study, the absence or presence of reminders of hand washing in public restrooms and a university campus were studied to determine if hand washing compliance was affected, and the results were a resounding, yes! The results confirmed, creating obvious environments and layouts that provide visual cues and convenience for workers has been associated with increased hand washing rates (Ford, Boyer, Menachemi, Huerta, 2014). In order to employ this proposal, hospital leadership teams will be provided with an implementation plan consisting of a step by step proposition of recommended interventions such as displaying visual cues at the points of patient care. Ongoing evaluations will be conducted throughout each phase to ascertain effectiveness and identify areas of improvement. Plans will be disseminated to identified stakeholders to encourage support and ongoing involvement.