THE USE OF A WARD-BASED EDUCATIONAL TEACHING PACKAGE TO ENHANCE NURSES COMPLIANCE WITH INFECTION-CONTROL PROCEDURES

Obtaining study leave is becoming difficult for clinical nurses in the current economic climate, but the need to develop new clinical skills and to maintain existing good practice remains of prime importance to patient care and will become mandatory with the advent of post-regist ration education and practice (PREP) in the UK. The ward is widely ack nowledged as the best venue for learning clinical skills by nurse educ ationalists and for many nurses is the preferred learning environment. The feasibility of using a ward-based teaching package to enhance nur ses' compliance with key infection control precautions (hand decontami nation, the use of gloves and the safe handling and disposal of sharp instruments) was tested in a quasi-experimental research study conduct ed on matched surgical wards in a teaching hospital, controlling for v ariables likely to influence performance (knowledge, availability of r esources to perform infection control, previous opportunity to develop infection control expertise and nursing workload). Nurses on two ward s received the intervention (experimental group). The remaining wards, which received no intervention, operated as controls. The ward-based sessions consisted of a carefully planned sequence of theory and pract ical demonstration delivered to qualified nurses in the clinical envir onment at convenient times selected by the ward managers. Performance of infection control precautions was audited before the intervention a nd 3 months afterwards. The sessions were well evaluated and the clini cal environment was considered suitable for teaching by the nurses, bu t heavy and unpredictable workload prevented the teaching programme fr om being implemented as planned. The analysis of covariance failed to detect any changes in performance between nurses in the control and ex perimental groups. The implications of the study findings are discusse d to help develop creative new ways of strengthening ward-based educat ional programmes.