Germ Simulation: A Novel Approach for Raising Medical Students Awareness Toward Asepsis

Simulation-based infection prevention and control training for medical and healthcare students: a systematic review

Introduction

Infection prevention and control education has traditionally been conducted in a lecture-based manner, and simulation-based educational strategies have become increasingly prevalent in the field of medical education in recent years. This systematic review aimed to compare the effectiveness of the simulation-based and traditional strategies of infection prevention and control education and to show the differences between these educational approaches. Furthermore, we identified the characteristics of simulation-based strategies for infection prevention and control education.

Method

Systematic reviews and meta-analyses were performed according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines. A systematic literature search was conducted using the CENTRAL, MEDLINE, and Scopus databases for articles published between January 1990 and September 2022. This study focused on students enrolled in medical and health professional courses. As such, healthcare professionals already working in clinical settings, as well as kindergarten and elementary school students were excluded from the study. The quality of the included studies and the risk of bias in each study were assessed. A total of 254 articles were identified; 21 underwent secondary screening. Ultimately, 10 articles were selected for the final review.

Results

Educational strategies between simulation- and lecture-based education showed improvements in knowledge acquisition. There was no significant difference in the rate of improvement between the two educational strategies. The characteristics of simulation-based educational strategies included confidence in skill performance, decision-making and problem-solving skills, emotional aspects related to infectious diseases (such as fear, empathy, self-reflection, and integration of complex information), and student satisfaction.

Conclusion

This systematic review suggests that simulation-based education is effective in developing students' skills and attitudes, while traditional lecture-based methods are more suited for reinforcing students' knowledge. Therefore, it is essential to choose educational strategies based on specific learning objectives and outcomes.

Systematic review registration

This systematic review protocol was preregistered in the Open Science Framework: https://osf.io/uj623/.

Evaluation of biosecurity measures on a swine operation using Glo Germ powder as a visible learning aid

Glo Germ powder was used to determine the efficacy of common biosecurity practices to prevent the powder from spreading to other areas within a farm. Pictures from 4 locations were taken before and after personnel movement to observe any differences in Glo Germ coverage. The percentage of Glo Germ coverage observed in the pictures was evaluated by 47 panelists and averaged. The area without biosecurity measures had more Glo Germ coverage than the 3 areas with biosecurity measures (P < .001). The use of Glo Germ can be used as a learning aid to demonstrate the efficacy of common biosecurity practices.

The role of simulation-based training in healthcare-associated infection (HAI) prevention

Objectives:

To perform a review of the literature on the role of simulation-based training (SBT) in healthcare-associated infection (HAI) prevention and to highlight the importance of SBT as an educational tool in infection prevention.

Methods:

We reviewed English language publications from PubMed to select original articles that utilized SBT as the primary mode of education for infection prevention efforts in acute-care hospitals.

Results:

Overall, 27 publications utilized SBT as primary mode of education for HAI prevention in acute-care hospitals. Training included the following: hand hygiene in 3 studies (11%), standard precaution in 1 study (4%), disaster preparedness in 4 studies (15%), central-line–associated blood stream infection (CLABSI) prevention in 14 studies (52%), catheter-associated urinary tract infection (CAUTI) prevention in 2 studies (7%), surgical site infection prevention in 2 studies (7%), and ventilatory associated pneumonia prevention in 1 study (4%). SBT improved learner’s sense of competence and confidence, increased knowledge and compliance in infection prevention measures, decreased HAI rates, and reduced healthcare costs.

Conclusion:

SBT can function as a teaching tool in day-to-day infection prevention efforts as well as in disaster preparedness. SBT is underutilized in infection prevention but can serve as a crucial educational tool.

Prophylactic Dressings for Maintaining Skin Integrity of Healthcare Workers When Using N95 Respirators While Preventing Contamination Due to the Novel Coronavirus: A Quality Improvement Project

PURPOSE

Extended use of N95 respirator masks is far more prevalent during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. As WOC nurses, we were tasked with formulating procedures for protecting the facial skin integrity of healthcare workers (HCWs) using personal protective devices when caring for patients with suspected or active COVID-19, while avoiding contamination when the masks are donned or doffed. This quality improvement project describes how we approached this project within the limited time frame available as we cared for patients with established and suspected COVID-19.

PARTICIPANTS AND SETTING

This project focused on HCW use of N95 respirator masks and dressings currently available in our facility. The 4 WOC nurses acted as quality improvement project directors and as participants. The setting for our project was our facility's simulation laboratory.

APPROACH

We evaluated 6 topical products (an alcohol-free liquid acrylate, thin film dressing, thin hydrocolloid dressing, hydrocolloid blister care cushion, thin foam transfer dressing, and thick foam dressing) applied to skin in contact with 3 N95 respirators; all are available on our facility's formulary and all are in widespread clinical use. After the product was applied to the face and nose, the N95 respirator was donned and evaluated for fit. Participants then wore the devices for 10 hours and doffed the mask using established facility procedures. In order to evaluate for potential contamination including possible aerosolization, we applied a commercially available fluorescent lotion to simulate the presence of infectious particles. Contamination was assessed using an ultraviolet light for all dressings except for the alcohol-free liquid acrylate. We also evaluated cutaneous responses (skin integrity, irritation, comfort) during this period.

OUTCOMES

We found that contamination of the simulated pathogen did not occur with removal of any of the protective products. No skin irritation was noted with any of the tested products after a 10-hour wear time underneath the N95 respirator masks, but mild discomfort was experienced with 3 of the dressings (thin film dressing and both hydrocolloid dressings).

CONCLUSION

Based on these experiences, we recommend application of an alcohol-free liquid acrylate film to prevent facial skin injury associated with friction from the extended use of an N95 respirator mask. We further recommend performing a fit test and user-performed seal check with the use of any topical dressing and especially those that add cushion. For the duration of the COVID-19 pandemic, we recommend use of protective dressings to maintain skin integrity and protection from coronavirus infection as HCWs continue to provide care to all of patients under their care.

Hand hygiene compliance: bridging the awareness-practice gap in sub-Saharan Africa

This review provides an exploratory overview of hand hygiene compliance in sub-Saharan Africa and examines strategies to bridge the compliance gap.

While there is increasing awareness on hand hygiene, empirical evidence suggests that there is no concurrent increase in correct hand hygiene practice among key populations in sub-Saharan Africa. Children, adolescents and even healthcare providers (HCPs) in sub-Saharan Africa consistently assume poor hand hygiene compliance levels resulting in negative health consequences. Faecal-oral diseases remain common among schoolchildren, leading to school absenteeism and disease-specific morbidity. Additionally, the incidence of nosocomial infections in health facilities in sub-Saharan Africa remains high, as many HCPs do not adopt good hand hygiene practice. Increased disease burden, high healthcare costs and eroding public confidence in the healthcare system are a few implications of HCPs’ poor compliance with hand hygiene. These trends underscore the inadequacies of educational approaches (cognition model) to hand hygiene promotion commonly adopted in sub-Saharan Africa.

It was therefore recommended that the governments of sub-Saharan Africa should focus on promoting skill-based hygiene education which will help schoolchildren develop good hand hygiene practice as a lifelong skill. In addition, efforts should be made to implement a multimodal hand hygiene strategy in healthcare facilities in order to increase compliance by healthcare providers.

A realist analysis of hospital patient safety in Wales: applied learning for alternative contexts from a multisite case study

Background

Hospital patient safety is a major social problem. In the UK, policy responses focus on the introduction of improvement programmes that seek to implement evidence-based clinical practices using the Model for Improvement, Plan-Do-Study-Act cycle. Empirical evidence that the outcomes of such programmes vary across hospitals demonstrates that the context of their implementation matters. However, the relationships between features of context and the implementation of safety programmes are both undertheorised and poorly understood in empirical terms.

Objectives

This study is designed to address gaps in conceptual, methodological and empirical knowledge about the influence of context on the local implementation of patient safety programmes.

Design

We used concepts from critical realism and institutional analysis to conduct a qualitative comparative-intensive case study involving 21 hospitals across all seven Welsh health boards. We focused on the local implementation of three focal interventions from the 1000 Lives+patient safety programme: Improving Leadership for Quality Improvement, Reducing Surgical Complications and Reducing Health-care Associated Infection. Our main sources of data were 160 semistructured interviews, observation and 1700 health policy and organisational documents. These data were analysed using the realist approaches of abstraction, abduction and retroduction.

Setting

Welsh Government and NHS Wales.

Participants

Interviews were conducted with 160 participants including government policy leads, health managers and professionals, partner agencies with strategic oversight of patient safety, advocacy groups and academics with expertise in patient safety.

Main outcome measures

Identification of the contextual factors pertinent to the local implementation of the 1000 Lives+patient safety programme in Welsh NHS hospitals.

Results

An innovative conceptual framework harnessing realist social theory and institutional theory was produced to address challenges identified within previous applications of realist inquiry in patient safety research. This involved the development and use of an explanatory intervention–context–mechanism–agency–outcome (I-CMAO) configuration to illustrate the processes behind implementation of a change programme. Our findings, illustrated by multiple nested I-CMAO configurations, show how local implementation of patient safety interventions are impacted and modified by particular aspects of context: specifically, isomorphism, by which an intervention becomes adapted to the environment in which it is implemented; institutional logics, the beliefs and values underpinning the intervention and its source, and their perceived legitimacy among different groups of health-care professionals; and the relational structure and power dynamics of the functional group, that is, those tasked with implementing the initiative. This dynamic interplay shapes and guides actions leading to the normalisation or the rejection of the patient safety programme.

Conclusions

Heightened awareness of the influence of context on the local implementation of patient safety programmes is required to inform the design of such interventions and to ensure their effective implementation and operationalisation in the day-to-day practice of health-care teams. Future work is required to elaborate our conceptual model and findings in similar settings where different interventions are introduced, and in different settings where similar innovations are implemented.

Funding

The National Institute for Health Research Health Services and Delivery Research programme.

Moment-specific compliance with hand hygiene

BACKGROUND

Hand hygiene is an important component of patient-safety education. The World Health Organization recommends the use of hand hygiene measures at five clinical moments. While previous studies have treated hand hygiene as a single entity, we investigated whether and how the compliance of students may vary across the five clinical moments. We also studied their reasons for non-compliance with a view to inform teaching.

METHOD

A voluntary self-administered questionnaire survey was conducted on a convenient sample of 339 medical and nursing students. The five clinical moments studied were: before touching a patient (moment 1); before a clean/aseptic procedure (moment 2); after body fluid exposure risk (moment 3); after touching a patient (moment 4); and after touching the patient's surroundings (moment 5).

RESULTS

The overall reported compliance rate was 83.0 per cent. The compliance rates were significantly lower at moments 1 and 5. Nursing students reported better overall compliance (p = 0.01), and at moments 2 (p = 0.0001) and 3 (p = 0.0001), than medical students. Medical students fared better at moment 4 (p = 0.009). The most common reason reported for non-compliance was 'forgetfulness'.

DISCUSSION

We identified differences in compliance rates across the five clinical moments of hand hygiene. Education programmes should not treat the hand hygiene process as a single entity, but should adopt a moment-specific approach to promote recall, with particular emphases on moments 1 and 5. Nursing and medical students may require different education strategies. Future studies on hand hygiene may also adopt a moment-specific approach.

Assessing the thoroughness of hand hygiene: "seeing is believing"

The thoroughness of hand hygiene (HH) was evaluated using a simulation method in which health care workers (HCWs) rubbed their hands with a fluorescent substance, washed with water, and placed their hands under an ultraviolet detector to identify areas missed. Most residue points were located in the tips of the nails (38.6%), followed by fingertips (17.4%). This stress-free "seeing is believing" program can encourage HCWs' active participation in sustaining the HH culture of health care institutions.

Hand Hygiene Practices among Medical Students

Background. Hand hygiene is a cost-effective method in preventing infection transmission. Hand hygiene practices have been found to be faulty in most healthcare settings. We conducted a study to evaluate the awareness, and compliance of hand hygiene among undergraduate medical students during their clinical phase in Qassim College of Medicine, Saudi Arabia. Methods. A questionnaire based on World Health Organization's concept of "Five Moments for Hand Hygiene" was used to evaluate the awareness of the indications for hand hygiene and compliance was observed during Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) sessions. Sixty students including thirty-six males (60%) and twenty-four females (40%) participated voluntarily in the study. Results. The average awareness regarding the positive indications of hand hygiene was 56%. Rest of the 44% of students were either not sure or unaware of the indications of hygiene. Only 29% of students were able to identify all the five indications for hand hygiene in the questionnaire. Compliance as assessed during OSCE sessions was only 17% with no significant difference between the genders. Conclusion. It was concluded that serious efforts are needed to improve the hand hygiene practices among medical students.

Early use of simulation in medical education

An oft-cited belief that, until recently, simulators used in education of health care professionals were simple models is wrong. Hundreds of years ago and, in one instance, thousands of years ago, intricate models were used to help teach anatomy and physiology and in training in obstetrics and many surgical disciplines. Simulators were used to learn skills before performing them on patients and in high-stakes assessment.The newest technologies were often used in simulators to improve fidelity. In the 18th century, obstetric simulators could leak amniotic fluid, and blood were used to train midwives and obstetricians to recognize and manage complications of childbirth. Italy was the major source of simulators early in the 18th century, but in the 19th century, dominance in clinical simulation moved to France, Britain, and then Germany. In comparison, much of the 20th century was a "dark age" for simulation.

The surgery clerkship: an opportunity for preclinical credentialing in urinary catheterization

BACKGROUND

At our hospital, medical students lost privileges to perform urinary catheterization because of concern regarding catheter-associated urinary tract infections. We hypothesized that trained medical students could perform urinary catheterization with the same proficiency as licensed practitioners.

METHODS

Medical students completed a credentialing program in urinary catheterization. Prospectively, the rate of catheter-associated urinary tract infections after urinary catheterization performed by medical students was compared with the health system-wide rate of catheter-associated urinary tract infections after urinary catheterization performed by non-medical students using an incidence rate ratio (IRR).

RESULTS

Over 9 months, a total of 432 and 55,401 catheter days accrued in patients who underwent urinary catheterization by medial students and non-medical students, resulting in 1 and 129 catheter-associated urinary tract infections, respectively. The incidence rate of catheter-associated urinary tract infections per 1,000 catheter days was 2.31 in the medical student-placed catheters and 2.33 in the non-MS-placed catheters (IRR = .99, P = .55).

CONCLUSIONS

Preclinical credentialing in urinary catheterization resulted in the reinstatement of urinary catheterization privileges to qualified medical students. Student proficiency in urinary catheterization can match that of licensed practitioners.