Celebrating hand hygiene champions

LOUISE FRAMPTON reports on the latest winners and their efforts to drive improvement.

In recognition of the hand hygiene initiatives being undertaken by infection prevention and control teams, across the UK, Schülke introduced the Hand Hygiene Champion award. This year, two Hand Hygiene Champions were recognised for their work and presented with their awards at the Infection Prevention Society’s annual conference. Chris Head, a senior healthcare assistant at Northampton General Hospital (NGH) was awarded the honour for his proactive teaching of effective hand hygiene. In his role as link nurse, Chris Head has taught staff on the hospital’s busy emergency assessment unit about the importance of effective hand hygiene in reducing the risk of infection – helping to ensure the patient’s journey is as safe as possible. Wendy Foster, infection prevention nurse specialist at NGH, who nominated Chris for the award, commented: “Chris is a very important link between the infection and prevention control team and the ward staff, and he undertakes his role with enthusiasm and passion. He is a very worthy winner of the award.” She explained that the hospital was among the first to sign up to the Cleanyourhands Campaign, when the initiative was first rolled out. A valuable champion behind the drive for improved hand hygiene, Chris Head has been actively involved in performing monthly Saving Lives audits and a monthly hand hygiene observation audit, which populates the matron’s dashboard. Wendy Foster commented: “Based on these audits, we are able to ascertain where there is good practice, as well as areas where there is room for improvement. The hand hygiene dashboard is discussed at monthly infection prevention committee meetings and is rated ‘red’, ‘amber’ or ‘green’. If there is room for improvement, actions are put in place to ensure better performance, but if hand hygiene compliance shows a significant decline, daily audits are then introduced,” she commented. Chris Head has also supported this work by developing a DVD and power point training tool, offering an overview of why hand hygiene is important, the reasons why people do not wash their hands, how infections occur, the principles of good hand hygiene, areas frequently missed when cleaning hands, a pictorial demonstration of the steps involved in best practice hand hygiene technique, glove usage, as well as the correct usage of alcohol-based hand gel. The presentation is combined with the use of a hand hygiene training tool called ‘Glo Germ’ – which brightly illuminates areas on the hands that have not been decontaminated properly, when placed under UV light. “Staff really engage with this part of the training as it provides a high impact, visual demonstration of the importance of hand hygiene,” Wendy Foster explained. In addition to his work at NGH, Chris Head has taken steps to raise hand hygiene awareness even further, by requesting specialist training to teach hand hygiene to the members of his St John Ambulance group – including children from the age of seven through to adults. Hand hygiene has become increasingly important to the charity since its activities are now registered and inspected by the Care Quality Commission. “We use fun games to show the young cadets the importance of hand hygiene and give badges out to those who clean their hands the best,” said Chris Head. “It is important to ensure children wash their hands properly as they may be our health service of the future.” Novel ideas used to convey the message have included a ‘germ card’, in which a folded piece of paper is passed between groups of children, to highlight the concept of an increasing number of germs being passed from person to person. A flip chart showing a pair of hands is also used – children are invited to mark up where they think the germs are likely to be present. The judges of the awards, including Julie Storr, president, Infection Prevention Society (IPS), Rose Gallagher, nurse advisor infection prevention and control, Royal College of Nursing (RCN) and Annette Jeanes (director of infection prevention and control at UCLH NHS Foundation Trust), highlighted the fact that Chris Head had gone ‘the extra mile’, beyond the remit of his role as healthcare assistant at NGH.

Joint winner