Quality improvement and evidence-based practice initiatives are essential in the innovation of healthcare. As we continue to invent new practices, equipment, etc there is an emphasis upon trial and error in the essence of preventing infection. Thus, there is always revision upon protocols via the analysis of data. The ventilator which we see in today’s ICUs was only beginning to be developed in the 1940s. From this, we know healthcare is forever evolving, and with that, we must evolve as well. I believe this is all our responsibility to continuously be educated and partake in evidence-based practice to ensure the safety of our patients and promote better patient outcomes.
Our team project consisted of a poster that spoke about infection control. The audience response was limited due to time, however, had much praise for their ability to continue to prevent infection in the healthcare setting. The way we obtained this response was via a survey utilizing surveymonkey.com which included questions regarding hand hygiene, PPE, disinfection of equipment, and time management. This survey asked the nurse to think introspectively about their belief that going forward they have the ability and knowledge to partake in these actions. We expect to receive more responses throughout the week. Additionally, our clinical instructor believed our work was great with a few suggestions. From this, we believe our dissemination project is feasible and applicable to the healthcare setting and would result in lower healthcare-acquired infections.
As a team, we worked collaboratively to come to an idea for our project, infection control (particularly, healthcare-acquired infections), as well as the production of all work produced. We were able to hold each other accountable for the work needed to be completed and provide exceptional quality of work. From this, I have learned how to identify an area that could be improved upon, how to collect the research and data necessary to improve upon this area and provide others with this research as well. I would love to one day install an initiative in a facility and analyze the data a year prior and a year after installment to truly analyze the outcomes.
Clinical protocols should be reviewed every two to three years. From this experience, I believe all students who engaged in this opportunity are and should believe that they could partake in the revision of protocols within their facility. We are all capable to identify areas of improvement, collecting the data necessary, and analyzing said data. This project should have instilled this confidence in every student, as I know this project had for me.
Great job on the project, Hallie! I enjoyed the layout of your poster and the inclusion of a QR code to provide a simple method for feedback. Infection control is such an important topic, yet seems to be frequently forgotten or improperly performed by many nurses. Your poster clearly outlines what nurses can do to participate in the prevention of infection and aligns with your project proposal and aim. This poster will act as a nice reminder on the unit!
Hallie, I really enjoyed reading your brochure and learning more about infection control. Your infographic was easy to follow and I felt that I learned important information about infection control. I hope that the audience you provided this information to learned more about infection control and will work towards preventing it. I like how there was a survey included so that you and your group could track information from people who saw the brochure. Great project!
I really like the use of questions to engage nurses in the infographic and the use of bold and underline points to bring attention to the most important information. In clinicals I have noticed many patient rooms that were not as clean as they should be so despite being very talked about, I think it is still a very relevant and, as your infographic shows, a very important issue.
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