PROPOSED SOLUTION
Safety in healthcare is the mandate of all healthcare workers and has been a slogan for quite an extended period. Despite being required for long time, it has been critical in most healthcare organizations demanding people’s lives due to healthcare-acquired infections. Since it has been a universal problem, instilling the right culture from the beginning of a healthcare worker’s career is necessary to promote safety and minimize healthcare-acquired infections. Training and educating healthcare workers on best hand hygiene practices will not only protect patients from healthcare transmitted infections, but also the nurses and other healthcare providers working in the same healthcare organization (Munoz-Figueroa & Ojo, 2018). Nurses and medical providers should be educated on an effective way to use alcohol-based hand sanitizer as the solution to healthcare-transmitted in hospitals as compared to routine antimicrobial soap that has proved to be less effective.
The proposed solution for this problem is the educating healthcare professional on various hand washing practices to integrate into their care so that they can promote safety and quality care. Most healthcare-associated infections are transmitted from one patient to another by the healthcare workers, therefore educating and training them on hand hygiene will reduce transmission of infections and promote healthcare safety (Robb et al., 2017). Developing an education system that will improve knowledge of hand hygiene techniques and infection control is possible in the healthcare organization I work in. The cost of treating and managing healthcare-acquired infections is way lower than the cost of implementing an education system that will educate all nurses on proper hand hygiene to embrace while in healthcare organizations (CDC, 2018). Nursing professions have a low level of knowledge regarding the alcohol-based hand sanitizer; therefore implementing an education system program to educate them on alcohol-based sanitization will be relevant for improving patient safety (Flávia Maria Derhun, Inoue & Matsuda, 2018). What is more, their willingness to participate in the education program is a motivation to program developers which is a forecast of successful program implementation in all healthcare systems.
Organizational Culture
The proposed solution is in line with the organization culture since healthcare workers are aware of the use of antimicrobial hand soaps but lack knowledge on the use of alcohol-based hand sanitization. Besides, instilling the best hand hygiene culture can only become a reality if all healthcare workers are educated as part of their career which later develop to organizational culture. Robb, Stolarek, Wells, & Bohm, (2017) contended that widespread system change for promoting safety and quality of care in healthcare system could not be a reality unless healthcare professionals are willing to improve an intrinsic part of their job on a daily basis. Quality and safety of care apply to all healthcare professions, thus developing a system that will educate all healthcare workers on hand hygiene as an organizational culture will be crucial to reduce healthcare-acquired infections in a healthcare organization.
Expected Outcome
The expected outcome of the project includes a reduced infection rate for medical-surgical patients due to reduced infection transmission. Also, nurses and healthcare professional will have increased competency regarding safe and more improved hand hygiene practices (CDC, 2018). What is more, patient satisfaction will be guaranteed to all patients using medical-surgical wards since there will be reduced transmission and reinfections. Reduced length of stay will be an expected outcome as a result of improved quality and safety of care.
Method to achieve the outcome
To achieve the outcomes, nurses and other medical providers will be expected to collaborate to promote a culture of hygiene in the working environment. Training and educating all healthcare workers on best hand hygiene practices will be the next step which will instill nurses with the best practices to prevent transmission. Next, alcohol-based hand sanitizer use should be made a routine in the healthcare facilities and should be provided in abundance so that it can hand hygiene can be a culture in all healthcare organizations (Munoz-Figueroa & Ojo, 2018). With the use of alcohol-based hand sanitizer, infections transmission will be reduced, promoting patient safety and care while in the medical-surgical units.
The barrier that will require assessment is healthcare workforce resistant to use alcohol-based hand sanitizer due to lack of knowledge and poor attitude towards its use. This barrier should be assessed and eliminated so that the implementation of the project can be successful in all healthcare systems. It is assumed that nurses are self-directed when it comes to hand hygiene, but education is important to make hand hygiene a routine in all healthcare organizations.
Outcome Impact
The outcome will have a positive influence on the quality of care improvement since the healthcare workforce will minimize healthcare-acquired infections transmission at a greater percentage. Also, there will be enhanced patient-centered quality care due to increased safety and safety and reduced infections transmission. The processes will be more efficient, and there will be reduced cases of healthcare-acquired infections (CDC, 2018). The working environment for healthcare practitioners is expected to change, and they will embrace a culture of hand hygiene practices. The education system will impact positively on the professional expertise where they will have more knowledge on the use of alcohol-based hand sanitizer to prevent hospital infections transmission.
References
Robb, G., Stolarek, I., Wells, S., & Bohm, G. (2017). The state of quality improvement and patient safety teaching in health professional education in New Zealand. The New Zealand medical journal, 130(1464), 13-24.
Flávia Maria Derhun, V. S., Inoue, K. C., & Matsuda, L. M. (2018). USE OF ALCOHOL-BASED HAND SANITIZER FOR HAND HYGIENE. Journal of Nursing, 12(2), 320-326. doi:https://doi.org/10.5205/1981-8963-v12i2a23095p320-328-2018
CDC. (2018). Hand Hygiene in Healthcare Settings. Retrieved from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. CDC 24/7 Saving Lives, Protecting People: https://www.cdc.gov/handhygiene/index.html
Munoz-Figueroa, G. P., & Ojo, O. (2018). The effectiveness of alcohol-based gel for hand sanitizing in infection control. British Journal of Nursing, 27(7), 382-387.