¹ Enrique Sanchis Sánchez

² Mª Montserrat Sánchez Lorente

² Ángela Olmedo Salas

³ Pablo García Molina

³ Evelin Balaguer López

¹ José María Blasco Igual 

 

1. Department of Physiotherapy. University of Valencia. Spain
2. Nursing School La Fe. University of Valencia. Spain.
3. Department of Nursing, University of Valencia, Spain.

 

Infection prevention and control is a scientific approach and practical solution designed to prevent harm caused by infection to patients and health workers. It is grounded in infectious diseases, epidemiology, social science and health system strengthening. IPC occupies a unique position in the field of patient safety and quality universal health coverage since it is relevant to health workers and patients at every single health-care encounter (1).

Data from health services indicate that 1 in 10 patients contract an infection while receiving medical care. This leads to prolonged hospital stays, long-term disability, increased antimicrobial resistance of microorganisms, massive additional costs to health systems, high costs to patients and their families, and unnecessary deaths. It is pertinent to incorporate the promotion of a culture of patient safety in Health Sciences students before starting the practical period in health institutions (2).

The hands are the main route of transmission of germs during it. Hand hygiene is recognized by the World Health Organization (WHO) as the most important measure to prevent the transmission of germs and healthcare-associated infections. Due to the importance of this procedure, it is crucial that the teaching-learning process in Health Sciences degrees guarantees an improvement in quality through patient safety. The prevention and control of infection, including hand hygiene, is a critical element to achieve Universal Health Coverage for three reasons; it’s an evidence-based practice, has demonstrated an impact on quality care and Patient Safety and reaches all levels of healthcare (3-5).

The educational model of the European Higher Education Area has created the need for a qualitative change in colleges’ education, in which the acquisition of knowledge gives a step in-depth into study and development of students’ competencies.

The change not only affects the structure and content, but also methodology. This should focus on the learning process and the acquisition of competencies through teaching-learning strategies that foster a collaborative environment, playing these factors a decisive role. In this context of change, digital technologies are current tools that may help to improve the inputs and outputs of the teaching-learning processes (6-8).

The persistent pervasiveness of teacher centered learning formats is not only to be found in medical education but in most healthcare educational programs (9). Among the main objectives of the Patient Safety Program of the World Health

Organization is: "To promote and develop the knowledge and culture of the patient safety among professionals and patients at any level of the Health care". Likewise, in Spain, the Ministry of Health, Social Services and Equality has launched another campaign and the conclusions of the EPINE 2017 study, after showing that nosocomial infections affected 7.74% of patients in Spain, suggest the implementation of programs of awareness raising through safety culture in health centers and hand hygiene campaigns. This campaigns implies the development of actions to improve training and access to current information on the safety of professionals, patients and citizen (10-13).

In this context, and considering current data from healthcare services suggesting that one every ten patients contracts an infection while receiving healthcare, it is important to incorporate the development of the patient safety culture to also prevent extra risks to students before starting their internships and career in healthcare facilities and institutions. Indeed, the hands are the main way of transmission of germs during healthcare, and hand hygiene is recognized by WHO as the cheapest, simplest and most effective measure to prevent infection associated with healthcare and cross-transmission of multi-resistant organisms. However, the adequate hand cleaning procedure is not thoroughly studied in most university studies in healthcare sciences, even when it is well established that patient safety strategies avoid prolonged hospital stays, long-term disabilities, increased resistance of microorganisms to antimicrobials, massive additional costs for health systems and families and unnecessary deaths are being some of the results of that contingency (12,13).

Given the above factors, this innovation activity sought to ensure that hand hygiene competence, which should be encompassed in all areas of health, was taught on collaborative learning basis. Thus, nursing students, who conventionally receive this education in their curricula, were in charge of transmitting such knowledge to other areas of healthcare sciences, specifically to physiotherapy, a profession in which professional-patient manual contact is the basis of a large part of the treatments. The goal was to achieve the acquisition of knowledge and skills in hand hygiene through shared learning and the correct use of new technologies in the classroom.

 

Methods

 

References