Use variety of methods in infection control training
New diseases, language barriers present challenge
If you’re the person in charge of training the housekeeping employees at your hospital in infection control techniques, you’ve got one tough job these days.
For one thing, infection control is an ever-changing field, with new disease sources and new methods of coping with them constantly coming into play. At the same time, you’ve got a whole series of Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) regulations and Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations standards to comply with. Some regulations deal with training itself, and others are concerned solely with making sure you document what you’re doing. And, to top it off, you have the challenge of training a group of employees — whose educational levels are typically the lowest among hospital staff and for whom English may be far from a second language — on how to be the "point people" in your facility’s daily infection-control efforts.
OSHA-mandated training for housekeeping personnel on bloodborne pathogens, biohazard signage, isolation practices, and tuberculosis control is typically accomplished in two phases in today’s hospital environment, according to Mary Brachman, RN, MS, CIC. Brachman is head of Minneapolis-based Brachman and Associates Infection Prevention and Control Services, and the former director of infection control at Abbot Hospital, also in Minneapolis.
"The first phase is often a corporate, or centralized session for all new employees, including housekeepers," says Brachman. Scheduled once or twice per month as dictated by the number of new hires, typically, the sessions are used to orient new employees in a variety of hospital procedures, "with infection control techniques usually getting about half an hour of time out of a one- or two-day session," she notes.
The sessions have their pluses and minuses, according to Brachman. On the positive side, "They provide an opportunity for new employees to get an introduction to infection control; they learn some general concepts and get an idea of what their role in the process is."
But there is a downside to this type of training. "What you’ve got in one of these sessions is a room full of all types of new employees — from physicians to operating room nurses to secretaries to housekeepers to accountants," she says. The multiple backgrounds, knowledge bases, educational levels, and sometimes even native languages of the individuals involved "means that you cannot provide any department-specific content during these sessions."
Learn by doing with buddy systems
Department-specific, "rubber meets the road" training, where employees learn the specifics of their job tasks as they relate to infection control, can last two weeks or even longer, according to Brachman. For housekeeping employees, this is the time they are trained in areas such as cleaning solution usage, the daily patient room cleaning process, handling of infectious wastes, and the transport and handling of sharps.
Training is accomplished in a combination of ways during this period, she adds. "New housekeeping employees can be paired up with knowledgeable employees in a sort of buddy system,’ on the ward level," she notes, with reviews of written policies and the viewing of training videos also commonly used to train new hires.
This buddy system is an important part of housekeeper training at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Minneapolis, says Judy Devitt, director of housekeeping and linen services.
"Adults learn by doing, not by listening to a lecture in a classroom," she says. After going through a centralized training session, housekeeping employees here get departmental-level training on infection control and isolation procedures from key employees who also act as teachers, says Devitt. "These teachers are housekeepers, but they are also individuals who have a knack for training people." She notes that "these same teachers also work closely with the new employees to make sure that tasks are getting done right."
A number of computer programs, from vendors that include St. Paul, MN-based 3M and organizations such as the Joint Commission, are available for training housekeeping employees on infection control techniques. These computer tools have a number of advantages, according to Brachman, who served as a consultant in the development of 3M’s CD-ROM-based Employee Education and Training Program.
"From the employer side, the core curriculum is prepared for you, and there are typically a number of built-in efficiencies for managers, such as flexible tools that allow you to document training on the individual, departmental, or job-title basis," she says. At their best, computer programs also present materials on a modular basis, allowing training topics to be viewed or omitted, depending on their appropriateness for specific staff members. Meanwhile, she notes, "the ideal system will also let you go in and change some items, perhaps a screen, window, and/or a picture, that will help customize the training for a particular department or organization."
Computerized training tools can also offer a number of benefits to employees. "The programs can provide a multisensory/multimedia experience for the learner," says Brachman. The better programs also promote self-paced and active learning by involving the learner in specific exercises, while enabling users to assess the progress of their learning by giving them feedback through built-in testing capabilities.
If your responsibilities include training housekeeping employees in infection control techniques, Brachman and Devitt have these basic tips for you:
- Stay abreast of the applicable rules, regulations, and standards.
- Become knowledgeable about the principles of adult learning. As Devitt points out, adults learn from doing, not from what teachers tell them. Also, "adults like very practical, job-related information, and they draw from personal experience," says Brachman. "They also like self-directed learning, which is one of the main benefits offered by computer-based training."
- Make training fun. "Adapt your content and vary your methods to make your training meaningful to your employees," says Brachman.
- Realize how important the housekeeping job is to the hospital. Not only do housekeeping employees play a vital role in infection control, notes Brachman, but "patient satisfaction with hospitals has been strongly linked with how clean their rooms are."
[For more information, contact:
• Mary Brachman, RN, MS, CIC, Brachman and Associates Infection Prevention and Control Services. 1990 West Farm Road, Minneapolis, MN 55356. e-mail: [email protected].
• Judy Devitt, Director of Housekeeping and Linen Services, HealthEase Hospital System. 69 West Exchange St., St. Paul, MN 55102. Telephone: (651) 232-3014.]
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