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The “Bugs Be Gone” educational session outlined in this Nurse.com article wasn’t about the things that bite you when you’re out on an evening walk. The bugs in question are the ones that cause infections, a serious issue for hospitals, with about one in every 20 patients developing an infection related to hospital care.
Over 60 healthcare professionals from a variety of disciplines, including many nurses, attended the half-day event to learn how to reduce that number of infections.
A registered nurse named Ellen Rankin said that it was important to gather healthcare professionals from many different disciplines “to show that this is a cross-setting issue and that we all face the same problem.”
One speaker was Janet Phillips, RN, Healthcare Quality Strategies Inc., New Jersey’s federally designated quality improvement organization, who summarized the healthcare-associated infections focus under the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ nationwide initiatives.
“The event highlighted the problem and encouraged shared improvements that can positively affect us all no matter what area we’re in,” Susan Hermida, RN, MSN, GCNS, CWCN, clinical nurse specialist at RWJ Hamilton, said in the release. “The most important step toward that goal is for everyone to wash their hands. Wash, wash, wash their hands.”
Neha Merchant, RN, of Hamilton Continuing Care, emphasized the importance of hand washing before providing a detailed look at catheter-associated urinary tract infection, central line-associated bloodstream infection and the components of an effective infection prevention program.
Among the attendees was a group of nursing students from The College of New Jersey School of Nursing. “The information presented today was really valuable,” said Corimae Gibson, a Robert Wood Johnson clinical program participant. “I’m a student at TCNJ and I’m about to enter the nursing profession. This information is the first step toward avoiding all the complications and patient loss we heard about today.”
Developing a presentation to take on the road is the collaborative’s next goal. By traveling to educate nurses in Mercer County, the team can help them identify signs and symptoms of infections that may reduce readmissions and improve patient care.