Assessment of Hand Hygiene Habits of Employees in an Adult Day Care Center

Presenter Information

David P. Wilson, Minnesota State University, Mankato

Location

CSU 204

Start Date

5-4-2011 11:00 AM

End Date

5-4-2011 12:30 PM

Student's Major

Anthropology

Student's College

Social and Behavioral Sciences

Mentor's Name

Kathryn "Jay" Elliott

Mentor's Department

Anthropology

Mentor's College

Social and Behavioral Sciences

Description

Following hand hygiene protocols is the primary defense in minimizing the transmission of infectious diseases. The adult foster day care facility provides a multitude of services for the local population of vulnerable adults in the Mankato and North Mankato community. The direct care providers provide close personal care to their clients on a daily basis. If hand hygiene protocols are not followed, this type of interaction creates an environment that enables the spread of infectious diseases. Direct care providers were interviewed about how they managed their hand hygiene on a daily basis and about any factors that inhibited their ability to follow hand hygiene protocols. The results of the interviews were compared to proven hand hygiene models to determine how the research participants were in implementing hand hygiene protocols. The data indicated that the direct care providers could not always follow hand hygiene protocols and this resulted in the creation of a new set of hand hygiene protocols that addressed the inhibiting factors.