Infection Prevention Collaboration

1. Infection Prevention Collaboration Partnering Direct Patient-Care Staff with Infection Preventionists for Best Patient Outcomes Source: Deb Custer, BSN, RN, CIC Senior Infection Prevention Officer, Metro Health Hospital

2. The CUSP Theory: • Change workplace culture by empowering staff to assume responsibility for safety in their environment through: • Education • Awareness • Access to organizationresources • Interventions CUSP has been used to target a wide range of problems: patient falls, hospital-acquired infections and medication administration errors, to name a few.

3. Leadership Support Required Because culture islocal, it must betargeted at the unitlevel, with supportat the organizationallevel.

4. Goals & Objectives • GOAL: best patient outcomes • Objectives: • Empower direct patient care staff • Formal collaboration between direct patient care staff, leadership, and infection preventionists • Leadership support for Infection Prevention

5. Problem: Healthcare-associated Infections Healthcare-associated infections remain a problem: • Hospital-acquired MRSA • Multi-Drug Resistant Organisms • C-difficile • Bacteremias • UTIs • Ventilator-Associated Pneumonias • Others Success requires many people and organizations to work together towards the elimination of HAIs. • Direct patient care staff • Infection Preventionists • Physicians • Pharmacists • Health Department • Others

6. Solutions based on Objectives • We must face these challenges and identify additional effective prevention strategies: • This is critical to improving patient safety and preventinghealthcare-associatedinfections.

7. Solution: Empower Direct-Patient Care Staff IP Champion: a staff member with an interestin problem-solving and detective work:

8. Solution: Formal Collaboration

9. Solution: Leadership Support Resources • Staff • Area champions • Time: Budgeted hours to support an IP champion: Six hours/per champion/month • PRN Infection Prevention/Champion/Leaders meetings

10. Summary • We must recognize the different needs of team members when it comes to making decisions, to ensure engagement and maximum contribution across the team. • We must understand and tap into the strengths of each of the different perspectives to maximize the quality of decisions made. • We must acknowledge and accept that it is the responsibility of each and every one of us to ensure that infection prevention practices are adhered to with every patient contact.

11. Summary Specifics Three specific things the Nursing Department can do to assure Metro Health succeeds with all regulatory requirements specific to infection prevention: 1. Practice 200% accountability – all nurses take ownership of their practice and hold their colleagues accountable when established policies/protocols are not followed. 2. Partner with IP to form a collaborative team starting with IP Champions, based on the CUSP theory. 3. Budget time and resources for nurses to participate with IP tracers, hand hygiene audits, isolation precaution auditing, and other activities promoting the reduction of hospital-acquired infections.