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THE EMPOWERED NURSE

pired medications. Greater measures are needed to truly mini- knowledge and compliance.
mize the risk for a medication administration errors including
targeted continuing education and implementation of an elec- Results: Only 88% of surveyed providers recognized that
tronic medication administration system. the A&E has a current hand hygiene policy with 64% noting
GPHC does not stress hand hygiene enough. Providers reported
they utilize hand hygiene 75% yet all participants acknowledged
that proper handwashing greatly reduces the spread of infection.
53% of providers surveyed felt comfortable encouraging their
peers to wash their hands.

Conclusions: Initial provider hand hygiene within the A&E
was abysmal. Though identified as a predominant barrier, sup-
Jessica Van Meter DNP MSN RN Sally Dye, BSN, RN plies were readily available throughout the observation window.

APN-BC CCRN A-EMT LifeFlight, Emergency Room nurse
Educational materials placed throughout the department im-
Flight Nurse, Vanderbilt LifeFlight sally.dye@vumc.org

Faculty Instructor, Vanderbilt University proved both the perception and compliance of hand hygiene.
School of The importance of provider hand hygiene must be continually
Nursing
jessica.vanmeter@vumc.org stressed in order to maintain optimal compliance.

Not pictured: Amanda Clarke, Marcia Heylinger, Arlene Thomas

From Best Evidence to Best Practice:

Implementation of a Handwashing

Campaign in the Accident and Emergency Jessica Van Meter DNP MSN RN Sally Dye, BSN, RN

APN-BC CCRN A-EMT LifeFlight, Emergency Room nurse

Department at Georgetown Public Hospital Flight Nurse, Vanderbilt LifeFlight sally.dye@vumc.org

Faculty Instructor, Vanderbilt University
Corporation, (GPHC), Guyana
School of Nursing

jessica.vanmeter@vumc.org
Objective: Handwashing compliance amongst developing

countries emergency health care providers is complicated by Not pictured: Natansa Amsterdam, Gangapattie Dani, Le-Ann Hamilton,

limited supplies, patient volume, mal-positioning of hygiene ma- Bhumika Sookdeo
terials, and lack of education of hand hygiene importance

Design/Methods: A survey was distributed to accident and
emergency (A&E) department health care staff to determine
baseline knowledge about the importance of hand hygiene. Par-
ticipants identified departmental obstacles to the practice of
proper hand hygiene. Using World Health Organization teach-
ing materials, a hand hygiene clinical observation tool was im-
plemented to determine compliance prior to delivery of tailored
education. Education was done utilizing posters, flyers, and pow-
erpoint presentation. Hand sanitizer stations were installed to
improve access and compliance. Finally, the clinical observation
tool was implemented following the education to measure im-
pact on provider compliance. A post-education survey was dis-
tributed to measure education and supplies impact on