Hand hygiene improvements have traditionally focused on changing behavior of frontline healthcare workers. This presents a challenge for the Infection Preventionist (IP) who is charged with improving hand hygiene yet has no authority or responsibility for those on the frontline of patient care. Perhaps it is time for a paradigm shift. IPs may be best served by focusing less on changing the hand hygiene behavior and more on building meaningful partnerships with those individuals who are in positions of authority and responsibility, namely nurse managers.
During this symposium, Dr. Jeffrey Ford will discuss the requirements for building partnerships with others for the accomplishment of change. He will identify four key conversations that generate engagement, reduce resistance, and lead to successful change. Peggy Zemansky will share her 4-year journey to sustained hand hygiene improvement after an automated hand hygiene monitoring system was installed at her hospital. Peggy will describe the importance of her working partnership with the hand hygiene team and how she was able to engage her staff, change the culture in her unit, and improve quality of care and patient safety.
Learning Objectives:
- Explain the limitations of traditional approaches to changing hand hygiene behavior and why they are not likely to result in sustained improvement.
- List the four key conversations that generate engagement, reduce resistance, and lead to successful change.
- Describe the importance of a working partnership with nurse managers in an effort to improve hand hygiene
- Summarize how this paradigm shift can lead to improvements in hand hygiene but also with other quality improvement initiatives
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