Date of Conferral
3-5-2025
Degree
Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP)
School
Nursing
Advisor
Dr. Mattie Burton
Abstract
Summary The Doctor of Nursing Practice project was a practice-focused initiative to address increased hospital-associated infections (HAIs) in an outpatient mental health facility. Improper hand hygiene significantly contributes to the spread of HAIs, negatively affecting patient outcomes, increasing healthcare costs, and decreasing patient satisfaction. The practice-focused question was: For nursing staff in an outpatient clinic, will education focused on the World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines on hand hygiene increase knowledge toward the goal of decreasing HAIs? In collaboration with project site leadership, I identified the following gap in practice: Though fundamental hand hygiene practices may be known to healthcare workers, not all staff consistently use the procedure correctly. Through a complex literature review, I recommended an education initiative based on WHO’s guidelines for proper hand hygiene as an evidence-based strategy to reduce HAIs. The project team produced a structured hand hygiene program that included WHO’s “Five Moments of Hand Hygiene,” delivered the program to nursing staff, and used a pre-/posttest design to assess the impact of the educational intervention. The 24 participants’ average pretest score was 64.17%, while their average posttest score was 89.17%. Furthermore, a t-test analysis showed this to be a significant change. The project’s implications for nursing practice highlight how vital education and training are to improving staff’s knowledge, skills, and abilities regarding evidence-based strategies to reduce HAIs. Project site leadership accepted my recommendation to use this project as a starting point for a greater quality improvement project. This project can easily be used in other facilities, and decreased HAIs can potentially improve the health of the general society, including all cultures and peoples.
Recommended Citation
Kplivi, Edith, "Educating Staff to Use World Health Organization Hand Hygiene Guidelines to Decrease Health Care-Associated Infection" (2025). Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies. 17427.
https://scholarworks.waldenu.edu/dissertations/17427
