Grace Kinahan, IPC CNS; Dr Cathal O’Sullivan, consultant microbiologist; Julie Cullen, ADON IPC; and Christine McDonnell, CNM2.

Hospital leading way in hand hygiene programme

The Midland Regional Hospital Mullingar is taking the lead in a new national hand hygiene programme, RESIST.

RESIST is a new initiative under the HSE Antimicrobial Resistance and Infection Control programme (AMRIC). It is being led out in Mullingar hospital by the Infection Prevention and Control team of Dr Cathal O’Sullivan, consultant microbiologist, Infection Prevention and Control; assistant director of Nursing Julie Cullen; IPC clinical nurse specialist Grace Kinahan; and IPC CNM’s Christine McDonnell and Davina Rowe.

It was officially launched in Mullingar on March 24.

The initiative is a fresh approach to hand hygiene education to hospital staff, patients and visitors.

Hand hygiene has been the key to preventing healthcare-associated infection, and the message for hospital staff is that cleaning your hands properly at the right time is one of the simplest things you can do to save you, your family and your co-workers from becoming ill and reducing the spread of illnesses such as stomach bugs, coughs, colds, Covid-19 and even superbugs.

Mullingar hospital has been providing training and support for hand hygiene for many years and this programme promotes a combination of hand hygiene training with standardised national training materials.

Hand hygiene has been at the forefront of all of the initiatives the HSE has been implementing to reduce the spread of Covid-19.

The Infection Prevention and Control team are now launching RESIST to heighten awareness of hand hygiene practice and to keep promoting the importance of clean hands in reducing transmission of infection.

Kay Slevin, hospital manager for Regional Hospital Mullingar, said: “Cleaning your hands properly, at the correct time, when delivering care to patients, is the most effective way to stop the spread of many infections including Covid-19.

“When healthcare workers like doctors, nurses and carers, keep their hands clean, they help prevent the spread of serious healthcare associated infections (HCAIs). These are infections that can happen during healthcare delivery in hospitals, residential facilities, outpatient services and even in the patient’s home.

“Regional Hospital Mullingar has a good record in hand hygiene but we are always looking to improve our standards. The RESIST programme will help us to do that, and we are delighted to have been selected.”

The clinical director at the hospital, Dr Murat Kirca, said: “The new hand hygiene awareness programme is aimed at all healthcare workers and at everyone who comes to the hospital, our patients and visitors.

“Some infections found in hospitals can be serious for our patients. We can all help stop the spread of these infections by making sure that our healthcare workers, patients and visitors clean their hands.

“We have always implemented good hand hygiene practices in Regional Hospital Mullingar but this new programme will help us to refresh and energise our hand hygiene approach.”

Katherine Kenny, director of nursing also welcomed the infection control initiative: “Safe patient care is paramount here in Regional Hospital Mullingar. RESIST will assist us to remind both staff and patients of the importance of hand hygiene in preventing transmission of infection.”

The infection prevention and control team identify that patients can also play a big part in reducing the spread of infection.

There are things you can do to protect yourself from picking up an infection or superbug while you are in our visiting hospital:

Patients:

• Clean your hands regularly and use the alcohol gel in the hospital. Always do this after you go to the toilet and before you eat

• Do not share your personal things with other patients – for example, your phone, your earphones, and so on

• Keep away from other patients’ beds

• Do not let anyone sit on your bed, and don’t sit on another patient’s bed

• It’s OK to remind staff to clean their hands

• It’s OK to tell a staff member if you see anything that is not clean