Lunch and Learn – Using cameras for hand hygiene auditing

Presenter: Dr Katherine McKay

Description:

Direct observation is the mandated method for collecting data about health care worker (HCW) hand hygiene compliance in Australia. Yet the approach has been criticised as being a time consuming way of collecting compliance rates which do not reflect practice the majority of the time. Various electronic approaches have been suggested as solutions to the ‘problems’ associated with direct observation, however a deep dive into the literature revealed that most rely on proxy measures of compliance rather than measuring practice according to the 5-moment framework. This presentation describes the results of a PhD study which explored the utility of video monitoring systems (VMS) for hand hygiene auditing. It outlines the potential for positive benefits as a results of the use of VMS and well as identifying barriers to implementation and areas for future investigation. A pitfall of any investigation is the myriad of other ideas, concepts and themes which emerge which, while interesting, are not strictly relevant to the study at hand. One of these rabbit holes, tempting to divert down, was the purpose and intent behind the act of direct observational auditing. It is this, ‘Pandora’s box of worms’ that will also be opened and shared along with the results described in the final PhD thesis.

About the presenter:

Katherine McKay is a Clinical Nurse Consultant (Infection Prevention and Control) at the Royal Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital . She completed the Masters of Advanced Practice (Infection Control) at Griffith University with first class honours and then made what she regards as the somewhat crazy decision to undertake a PHD at The University of Sydney She finally completed this in late 2022, the topic of her thesis was the use of Video Surveillance for hand hygiene auditing. Katherine has also completed Post Graduate Studies in Critical Care Nursing and Clinical Nursing Education.