Date of Graduation

Fall 12-11-2020

Document Access

Project/Capstone - Global access

Degree Name

Master of Science in Nursing (MSN)

College/School

School of Nursing and Health Professions

Abstract

Hand hygiene compliance is one of the most simplest forms of preventing infection. This paper focuses on improving the frequency and standardizing hand hygiene education to patients delivered by health care professionals from a primary care clinic. The ambulatory suburban community clinic in Oakland primarily serves the underserved population. The target population are the following providers: Physicians, Physician Assistants, Nurse Practitioners, Registered Nurse, Licensed Practical Nurse, and Medical Assistants. A survey was adapted from evidence-based studies, WHO, and CDC to collect data on current hand hygiene education provided to patients from healthcare professionals. An additional survey was given to patients to assess baseline hand hygiene compliance and education that was provided by their health care providers. An educational tool was created for Physicians, Physician Assistants, Nurse Practitioners, Registered Nurse, Licensed Practical Nurse, Medical Assistants and Nursing Students to have available during patient calls to promote standardized hand hygiene education. Eighteen of 38 providers responded to surveys. Of those 18, 61.1% of health care providers stated hand hygiene education was not at all provided to their patients. The results called for standardizing hand hygiene education to be implemented using the educational tool four weeks to test effectiveness. Due to the competing demands of staff involvement during the COVID-19 transition, the clinical staff did not buy-in. For the implementation tool to take place, we recommended that future nursing students pilot the study by using the hand hygiene educational tool in person to test effectiveness. After the implementation of the educational tool during patient appointments, we would like to see an 20% increase of healthcare professionals providing hand hygiene education.

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