Hand Hygiene Campaign: Importance, Goals, And Content - An Essay.

Discuss about the Hand Hygiene Campaign Plan.

Healthcare-acquired infections have been on the rise over the past years. The prevalence of the healthcare-acquired infections has attracted the attention of several stakeholders including patients, governments, and investors. Therefore, there is a great necessity for the implementation of hand hygiene programs in the hospitals. The hand hygiene campaign will be implemented in the Sandringham Nursing Home upon approval to prevent the infections such as flu and Castro that are prevalent in the hospital. To implement the program, several factors have to be addressed as discussed in this paper.

The hand hygiene campaign will be set in Sandringham Nursing Home. Since it is a critical camping that requires the participation of all the staff members and the patients, the facility will be provided with the necessary equipment and preparation. The provision of alcohol-based hand rub and soap/water, communication materials, and hand hygiene training session will be prioritised in the creation of the campaign (Salmon et al., 2011). The programs will involve all the staff members of the facility as well as the patients that visit the hospital for treatment.

Several socioeconomic factors affect hand hygiene in the clinical setup. One of the major factors influencing the hand hygiene campaign is the professional category of the individual staff. Studies show that physicians are less likely to comply with the campaign as compared to the nurses (Lau, 2012, p.21). The age of the people involved in the campaign also played a critical role in determining the compliance to the campaign. Research shows that people between 31 and 40 years washed their hands more regularly that those between 21 and 30 years (Lau, 2012, p.21). Other social factors that affect the hand hygiene campaign include gender, behaviour, hand irritation and dryness, awareness of the program and perception of being a model (Lau, 2012).

The target audience of the hand hygiene campaign will be the care workers of Sandringham Nursing Home. The reason for picking this target audience is their attributes that affect the effectiveness of the program. One of the essential features that make them the primary target audience is their tendency to have one-on-one contact with patients and other colleagues. The contact can determine whether they will transmit the pathogens that cause infection or not (Occupational Safety and Health Administration, 2013). Therefore, it is important to consider their activities to protect their clients as well their colleagues and themselves.

Another characteristic that qualifies them to be the primary target audience is their leadership role in the health care. The reason for this claim is that they can act as role models to the patients and they can guide them as well. As a result, their advocacies will be taken well by the patients because of their position. Also, their vulnerability to the pathogens makes them the target audience (Occupational Safety and Health Administration, 2013). Caregivers are usually exposed to pathogens during their work, and this makes them have a high possibility of getting an infection from the patients and other equipment in the clinic. The other characteristic that makes them the target audience is because they are knowledgeable. Caregivers understand the need for hand hygiene because they know about the prevalences of the healthcare-acquired infections. Their knowledge helps to make the program efficient because it will also influence their attitudes in a positive manner (Nabavi et al., 2015).

Target Audience

Health care-related diseases are increasingly attracting the attention of patients, authorities, and other stakeholders.. The reason for this attention is the fact these diseases are preventable. However, adherence to strict hand hygiene practices can significantly reduce the prevalence of health care infections. The reason for this claim is that the transmission of pathogens in the medical occurrence through direct and indirect contact, air, droplets, and other conventional vehicles (World Health Organization, 2009, p. 5). Therefore, this shows there is a great need for the hand hygiene campaign to help reduce the prevalence of the hospital-acquired infections.

Besides, the issue of hospital-acquired infections affects many countries. According to the study by Russo et al. (2015), 12-32% of the hospital-acquired infections lead to death. Besides, it is estimated that more than 175000 hospital acquired infections occur every year in Australia (Russo et al., 2015, p. 38). The high prevalence of healthcare infections is attributed to the practices of the care workers. They include the inappropriate use of invasive devices and antibiotics, complicated procedures that are dangerous, and insufficient use of standard and isolation procedures (World Health Organization, n.d., p. 2-3). Because the causes are controllable by the care workers, there is the need to intervene by implementing the programming.

The hand hygiene camping will be put in place to achieve two primary goals. The first goal will be to keep away the infectious diseases that might break out at any time. The spread of infection will be prevented because hand washing is one of the best ways to stops the spreading of germs (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2016). Besides, the hand-washing practice will complement other sanitation processes in the health care. For instance, the physician will support hygiene when their hands are clean during their practise and handling of sterilised equipment in the clinic. As a result, the spread of pathogens during the contact with patients and other colleagues will be limited.

The second objective of the campaign will be to promote the health of the residents of the nursing home. Clean hands will reduce the possibility of movement of pathogens from the infected areas and materials to healthy individuals. As a consequence, the residents of the nursing home will continue to enjoy good health. In addition, they will not be infected with flu and Castro the major illnesses that have been affecting patients and staff members of Sandringham Nursing Home. Other goals that the campaign hopes to achieve is a culture of hand washing caregivers that can influence the patients in positive manners so that they embrace hand washing practices as well.

The program will consist of the formation of the hand hygiene project team. Through the selection of the team, the hospital will show its commitment and support for the hand hygiene program through interest, participation, and reporting of the proceeding of the program. The identification of key members from the nursing home will ensure that success of the program by engaging the non-clinical and clinical staff to support the project (Grayson et al., 2013, p.51).

Justification

The other component of the hand hygiene program will be the description of the program. The program description will clarify the elements of the program and communicate the expected outcomes of the program to the target group. As a result, it will enhance the focus on the evaluation of the most critical questions. The components of the complete program information include demand, target, results, actions, products, supplies, and the relevance of actions and the results (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2011, p. 21).

The other component of the hand hygiene campaign will be the promotion of hygiene (Curtis, 2005). It will involve starting by targeting few risk methods. The reason for this strategy is the fact that people find it difficult to change habits. The promotion will also involve identifying a specific target audience, in this case, the caregivers of the nursing home. It will also include the identification of the motives for the changed behaviours among the target audience and capitalising on them to ensure the caregivers continue to embrace the practice.  Other important aspects that will be considered in the promotion component will be planning, execution and monitoring of the program (Curtis, 2005).

Another critical component of the hand hygiene program will be the sustaining of the hand hygiene program (Chassin et al., 2015). The cause for this is the fact that many caregivers may comply with the program in the initial stages of the implementation and start dropping the practices with time. The leading causes of noncompliance with the hand hygiene program include the poor location of hand rub dispensers, empty dispensers, inadequate training of staff, and the culture of the hospital (Chassin et al., 2015, p. 7). Therefore, the sustaining of the program will include addressing such issues by intervening before they get out of control. However, it important to note that the sustainability of the program will be determined by the monitoring and evaluation of the program (Srigley et al., 2013). Therefore, to help sustain the program, surveillance and evaluation will be considered one of the contents of the campaign. 

The campaign will be designed in a manner that will support the achievement of the various goals. The first goal is to keep away the pathogens that cause the infections. As a result, the program will be implemented in phases. The first step will be to offer health education to the caregivers on the issues hand hygiene. The health education will be carried out in a continuous manner that will be offered once in a month.  However, the first session will take approximately a week to ensure that the caregivers get the best out of the session. The second phase will be identifying the best source for the equipment that will be cost-effective. After identifying the various suppliers, the equipment will be purchased to support the program. The program will continue by setting up the necessary equipment to support the program. The kit includes water tanks, taps, soaps, and water in the various stations that the physicians and nurses work. The installation of the equipment will take about a week to complete.

Goals of the Campaign

After setting up the equipment and starting the program, the caregivers will be provided with printed materials that will have the guidelines on the effective ways of washing the hands and the benefits of the practice as well. Also, to make sure that they embrace the practice, the printed materials can have sections that allow them to check whenever they wash their hands. However, they have to be encouraged to be honest whenever they check the parts. Implementing this will help to achieve the goals of the campaign in a successful manner.

Resource of the campaign

The hand hygiene program has to be assessed to ensure that the activities are delivered as planned and help in tracking the progress, and offer accountability. Therefore, it is important that the SMART indicator is applied to identify the status of the program as suggested by Freeman and Dreibelbis (2015). The SMART index is an acronym composed of five terms. The first letter stands for specific meaning that the program has to reflect the expected information from the summary of the narrative. The second letter M stands for measurable to show that the program has to be quantifiable and achievable. The third letter is A, which means attributable in that the changes have to be because of the program. The fourth letter ids R that means the program has to be realistic regarding being reasonable and profitable. It also has to be time-bound, in which it would determine the period of the program (Freeman and Dreibelbis, 2015).

The hand hygiene campaign will have significant impacts on the relevant stakeholders. A good example of the implications of the hand hygiene practices is patient satisfaction. Studies show that patients are satisfied with the services of the health facilities when they see the caregivers wash their hands (Samuel et al., 2005). The compliance of the caregiver to the hand hygiene program increased patient satisfaction and feedback as well. For instance, most suggest that health education to patients and their family members, regular supervision of health workers, and provision of moral support for patients will improve health service care (Samuel et al., 2005)

In New Zealand, the District Health Boards (DHBs) realised many benefits from the programs. The DHBs were able to hit their targets, and the comparison of the results with other DHBs encouraged them to embrace the programs more. As a result, the management of the DHBs was motivated by the success of the program making them prioritise the local program and give them the necessary resources (Freeman et al., 2016). The generation of support by the communities from the staff and management helped to improve the performance of the various district health boards.

References

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