A Day In The Life Of An APIC Board Member

 

I am always amazed at how much we can learn from children. Some how in the innocence of their years and their ability to resist some of the challenges we face as adults like group think, peer group pressure, stress and deadlines children can make fantastic role models. There is a lot that modern healthcare could learn from watching kids’ behaviours.

 

Yesterday I spent the day teaching nurses the fundamentals of infection prevention. The course was run in Brisbane by AUSMED (www.ausmed.com.au) and it’s one that Sue Resnik and I teach at least twice a year. Yesterday’s group were all nurses. Our common goal was to be better at infection prevention at the end of the day compared to the beginning. Throughout the day we had a few good laughs as experiences were recounted and stories shared. Here is my favourite story of the day told to me by a very proud Grandmother working in infection prevention.

 

Last month this Grandmother’s 6 year old Grandson came to visit Brisbane and the Gold Coast from his home in Auckland, New Zealand. The little boy’s holiday included the sights of Brisbane city and no doubt some of thefun things for kids here on the Coast like Movie World, Sea World, Dreamworld and perhaps even a spot of whale or dolphin watching from one of our gorgeous beaches.

 

At some stage of his holiday the young boy watched his Grandmother pull out of her pocket and use an alcohol based hand gel, the domestic type not our hospital product. The hand gel fascinated the little boy and he asked his Grandmother to explain what she was doing, what the purpose of the gel was and what did she hope to achieve. (Imagine someone being that interested in hand hygiene – an Infection Preventionist’s dream). Like a good Grandmother she explained about germs and antisepsis and the grandchild was delighted when he had the opportunity to first use the product.

 

Wind forward a few weeks and the little fella returns to Auckland and attends school. It’s show and tell day and the little boy stands up in front of his peers and he proceeds to tell about the best part of his holiday to Australia. You guessed it. No mention is made of the theme parks, the beaches or any of the other tourist attractions here in Queensland. Rather the 6-year old proceeds to tell all his class mates about the gel and then he demonstrates how to use it for them and tells them why it’s important to perform hand hygiene regularly. The kids are riveted and the teacher pleased and amused.

 

Our young recruit is very special, part of a Gifted and Talented class at his local school. Not surprisingly he ends his “show and tell” recommending that the class immediately institute a “gel-based hand hygiene programme” (my words not his). What he managed to design and achieve was the implementation of a bracket and a large bottle of gel which each child uses befre leaving the classroom for each of their play and meal breaks. The kids love the gel and use it with passion.

 

Your typical infection preventionist might be happy to stop at this point but your above average 6-year old isn’t. Enjoying the success of his program he goes to the administrator (school principal) puts forward his business case and requests that every classroom be supplied with a gel bottle and each student encouraged to use the gel before every break. The principal loves the idea and the school is now probably one of the most hand hygiene conscience of any in the Southern hemisphere.

 

What a great and inspiring story. Who says that one small boy with one bright idea and one switched on Grandma can’t make a difference? In 30 years time when I’m older and probably consuming healthcare along with the other Boomers I want this boy to be the Infection Preventionist keeping me safe. Move over Semmelweis the kids are coming through.

 

For more information on global hand hygiene promotion visit http://www.who.int/gpsc/tools/en/ or www.apic.org Australia is in the early stages of launching its national hand hygiene campaign. I wonder if they have room for a 6-year old Project Director.

  

This entry was posted on Friday, August 29th, 2008 at 11:14 pm and is filed under Great Things, International Activity, Meet Cath. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.