The Infection Control Education Project: Just the Tip of the Iceberg

Purpose of Presentation: Patient care environments are struggling to eradicate healthcare associated infections (HAl). Assessments of undergraduate and graduate medical trainees have revealed significant gaps in their performance of proper hand hygiene and aseptic technique (HH/AT), suggesting the need for improved curriculum. Here we describe the Infection Control Education (ICE) project; a grant-funded, mUlti-institutional effort launched to improve the teaching and assessment of HH/AT. Methodology: Interprofessionalleaders and educators from two local hospital systems and 3 health colleges developed a 9-component ICE Pack that included a unanimously-endorsed, detailed hand hygiene and aseptic technique (HH/AT) checklist. This teaching and assessment module was delivered to 34 nursing/medical student and PGY-1 resident/nurse intern pairs. Learners completed an evaluation at the end of the module. Retention of checklist skills was retested two to three months after participation in the module in a subset of participants. Results: Learner pairs participating in the two-hour module achieved 100% mastery of the HH/AT checklist and rated the experience highly valuable (Mean=4.4 on 5-point scale). After re-testing several weeks later, deterioration in percentage of steps performed correctly was evident for all learner groups: nursing students (39%), medical students (80%) and residents (38%). Conclusions: A community-wide HH/AT checklist was developed and an ICE Pack of materials created. These materials were portable, standardized the teaching and assessment of HH/AT skills, and were designed for interprofessional pairs of learners. Retention of checklist steps was disappointing in retested participants. Multiple, simultaneous strategies for improving compliance with infection control mandates appear necessary