• Can patient empowerment be used as a strategy to improve infection control compliance? (South Pacific teleclass)

      Date: August 10th, 2016

      Time: 10:30 am PST

      Speaker: Dr Holly Seale, School of Public Health and Community Medicine, UNSW Australia

      Objectives:

      • Patients have, traditionally, been assumed to be the passive party in the healthcare associated infection equation. Recently, a more informed dialogue between providers and patients has emerged, supported by the WHO, which argues for a more active role for patients.
      • There are now international, government and patient-led imperatives to empower patients to engage as active partners in their healthcare and in healthcare in general. However, there are others that suggest that relying on patients to check on the care they receive from health professionals is neither an effective nor an appropriate strategy for promoting patient safety.
      • The term empowerment can have different meanings and interpretations, but in health care, it generally refers to the process that allows an individual or a community to gain the knowledge, attitudes and skills needed to make choices and participate in their care.
      • Patient empowerment is an integral part of the WHO hand hygiene multimodal strategy. A central message is “It’s OK to ask,” encouraging patients to ask hospital staff whether they have performed hand hygiene before providing patient care.
      • To date, studies have shown mixed results in regards to integrating patient empowerment programs into their infection control campaigns.
      • Is there an active role for the patient in assisting with preventing healthcare associated infections? Can we ever get patients to feel sufficiently confident to ask their healthcare providers to perform hand hygiene?

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