What It All Comes Down To

Throughout my internship at Paradise Valley Hospital, I have had a heavy focus on hand hygiene in the hospital. Hand hygiene is the simplest and most basic way to prevent Hospital-acquired Infections (HAIs). The most common vehicle for the transmission of pathogens in the hospital are the hands of healthcare workers. Simple by using and alcohol-based hand rub before and after you come in contact with the patient and/or their environment, you are greatly decreasing the chance of giving a patient a HAI.

At Vanderbilt University Medical Center. They were able to improve their hand hygiene compliance rate from 58% to 96.6% in 5 years. Just by doing that, they were able to reduce their HAIs by up to 80%. Just by increasing the hand hygiene compliance rate, you are able to greatly decrease the risk of HAIs in the hospital.

This information is what inspired my project, Hand Hygiene in Paradise. The point of this project was to promote hand hygiene at Paradise Valley Hospital by educating staff on proper hand hygiene, how effective hand hygiene is at preventing HAIs, and allowing staff to make a pledge to follow proper hand hygiene.

The first thing I created was a banner that has the Hand Hygiene Pledge on it. It says:

"I pledge to always wash my hands

before and after touching a patient,

before a clean or aseptic procedure,

after any body fluid exposure,

after touching patient surroundings

or before and after any situation that

sensibly calls for it. By committing

myself to maintain hand hygiene,

I will ensure the safety of myself,

my patients, and those who

work with me."

Staff will be able to make the pledge by putting their hand print on the banner ans signing their name under it. This banner will then be displayed somewhere in the hospital.

In addition to this banner. I've also created a 10 question survey that will be given to the staff at Paradise Valley Hospital. It has questions about proper hand hygiene technique and about common pathogens found in hospitals such as Meth​​icillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), Clostridium difficile (C-diff), and Carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE). Participants with the highest score will receive a prize.

I've also created a logo that promotes hand hygiene in the hospital. It says "Infection Control is in Your Hands" I chose this as the moto because hand hygiene is the most basic thing that healthcare workers can to to prevent HAIs. By doing this one thing, they can significantly reduce the amount of HAIs in the hospital. This strategy is not in the hands of the Infection Control and Prevention nurse. She

cannot make sure that everybody who works at the hospital performs hand hygiene when necessary. It is up to the healthcare workers to hold each other accountable. I created this logo so that the ICP office may use them to create posters, signs, and use them on flyers when they need it.

Lastly, I made a display with important information about hand hygiene that will be displayed at the pledge table. This was the bulk of my project because it took my interests and research on the topic and compiled it into one display. It includes information about 3 different common pathogens found in hospitals, MRSA, C-diff, and CRE. I put information about what it is, types of people who are at risk, and ways to prevent it. I also included when healthcare workers should wash their hands, when they should use an alcohol-based hand rub, and the proper procedure for using the washing and using an alcohol-based hand rub.