Nursing Theory in the Project: Self-Care Theory
To support the implementation of the proposed project, it is imperative to define theoretical assumptions that best support decision-making and prevent potential problems from affecting practical results. The plan is to make both patients and staff members more compliant with standards and recommendations regarding hand hygiene. The willingness to develop hand hygiene routines can decrease hospitalized patients’ risks of getting infections, whereas nurses reduce the threat of causing harm to their clients and themselves by engaging in such behaviors.
With that in mind, it is reasonable to use Dorothea Orem’s self-care theory to design personnel and patient education efforts and promote safety (Mohammadpour, Rahmati Sharghi, Khosravan, Alami, & Akhond, 2015). Practical interventions constructed with reference to the theory rely on the application of the supportive-educative system to care practices (Mohammadpour et al., 2015).
They also include efforts to provide patients with information on their health problems and habits to reduce the risks of complications. Although the theory touches upon patients’ needs, it will be beneficial to expand it to staff education since nurses failing to follow hand hygiene guidelines demonstrate the lack of self-care apart from irresponsibility towards clients.
Implementation Plan and Outcome Measures
As it has been stated, the project is to initiate the change by implementing new practices affecting different organizational levels, including the administration, staff providing direct care, and healthcare consumers. During the preparatory stage, the team will calculate the amount of alcohol-based hand sanitizer needed to fully replace liquid soap at a particular facility and choose the most cost-effective product in the market. To make sure that nurses remember the guidelines, nurse educators will design and print workplace reminders to be used in break areas for staff and patient rooms (Doronina, Jones, Martello, Biron, & Lavoie-Tremblay, 2017).
Next, specialists in nurse education will work on an educational program for nurses. It will be a 1-hour lecture on HCAI prevention, poor hand hygiene and its implications for nurses’ health, the proper use of hand sanitizers, and the basics of patient education. They will also be required to find or create handout materials to be distributed among both nurses and patients.
The next stage of the implementation is the introduction of new practices. The change will be initiated by purchasing hand sanitizer, making sure that all nurses included in the intervention group have access to it, and using printed reminders. Then, a qualified nurse educator will give a lecture to staff members to provide new information, assess nurses’ current practice and provide feedback, and distribute the selected handout materials. After receiving education, nurses in the intervention group will be encouraged to share this information with patients and provide them with information brochures (Srigley, Furness, & Gardam, 2016).
The results will be evaluated with the help of three outcome measures. They will include the HCAI rate in the control and comparison groups, patient-perceived quality of care, and pre-and post-intervention hand hygiene compliance rates in nurses.
Potential Barriers and Strategies to Overcome Them
Prior to initiating change, it is critical to consider potential barriers to the project’s success, including quality constraints and inadequate lecture attendance rates resulting from nurses’ business with patient care tasks. The first barrier is linked to the need for an effective hand sanitizing product. The project team is expected to thoroughly analyze the market of hand antiseptics and select the most popular brand among hospitals to address the barrier. As for the next potential problem, it refers to care workers’ workload preventing them from visiting the planned lecture. To make sure that all specialists can visit the event without compromising patient safety, the lecture will be held three times for smaller groups of nurses.
References
Doronina, O., Jones, D., Martello, M., Biron, A., & Lavoie-Tremblay, M. (2017). A systematic review on the effectiveness of interventions to improve hand hygiene compliance of nurses in the hospital setting. Journal of Nursing Scholarship, 49(2), 143-152.
Mohammadpour, A., Rahmati Sharghi, N., Khosravan, S., Alami, A., & Akhond, M. (2015). The effect of a supportive educational intervention developed based on the Orem’s self-care theory on the self-care ability of patients with myocardial infarction: A randomised controlled trial. Journal of Clinical Nursing, 24(11-12), 1686-1692.
Srigley, J. A., Furness, C. D., & Gardam, M. (2016). Interventions to improve patient hand hygiene: A systematic review. Journal of Hospital Infection, 94(1), 23-29.