Nursing

Hand-washer "spies" are sneaking at hospitals

Staff Development Weekly: Insight on Evidence-Based Practice in Education, March 29, 2007

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To get healthcare staff to adhere to hand hygiene guidelines, some companies now dispatch "spies" to hospitals to observe staff and document hand-washing practices. These observers may not lead the life of James Bond, but they play a vital role in the ongoing efforts to protect patients from infections.

So how do employees react to these strangers? Some workers ask who the observer is, which prompts an already agreed upon response, such as

  • "I am here from another facility"
  • "I am a here to review charts for unapproved abbreviations and completion of surgical data"

To get more information, go to Briefings on Infection Control (BOIC). For the cost of just three stories, you can get the entire March issue of BOIC. Click here to choose between the PDF and HTML versions for just $30. Subscribers to the online version of BOIC have free access to this article. Subscribers to the print newsletter can find this article in their March issue.



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