Healthcare facilities are seeing an increase in healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) and potential compliance failures. Fortunately, there’s a solution: Tork® Clean Hands Training – an interactive tool that will help facilities improve hand hygiene compliance among staff.
Previously only available in a virtual reality format, Tork Clean Hands Training will now be accessible as a desktop version. No virtual reality equipment will be needed.
Why hand hygiene is important in healthcare
Research continues to strongly confirm the importance of hand hygiene in healthcare:
- HAIs are a major threat to patient safety worldwide. 5-10% of all hospital patients are affected. In U.S. alone there are at least 99,000 fatalities each year. 1
- Hand hygiene is the leading measure for reducing healthcare-associated infections.2 Improving hand hygiene practices may reduce pathogen transmission in healthcare by 50%.3
Hand hygiene is key to preventing infections
In today’s world, proper hand hygiene is considered the single most important method of preventing and controlling infection in healthcare facilities. What may not be as obvious is that there are many missed opportunities to achieve proper hand hygiene.
Despite having the best intentions to secure hand hygiene compliance to protect patients and themselves, healthcare professionals are always looking for ways to improve. A survey conducted for Tork found that:
- 8 in 10 healthcare workers would like to receive better hand hygiene training.
- 1 in 2 want hand hygiene training to be based on facts and the latest research.
- Almost 1 in 5 say it’s very important that training is interactive, fun, and engaging.
Learning through simulation works
Training is a critical part of consistent hand hygiene, and research on learning shows why this is true. Research has shown that we remember only 10% of what we read, but when we simulate actions that figure rises to 90%.4
The Tork Clean Hands Training offers convenient training that can motivate workers and ingrain compliance behaviors. The training was developed in close collaboration with world-leading hand hygiene experts at the University of Geneva Hospitals and Faculty of Medicine in Geneva, Switzerland. The training itself is presented in the form of an engaging game that lets employees interact with patients while maintaining a high level of hand hygiene.
Training tied to WHO’s 5 moments for hand hygiene
The training solution enables you and your staff to train and improve on each of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) 5 moments for hand hygiene:
- Before touching a patient
- Before clean/aseptic procedures
- After body fluid exposure/risk
- After touching a patient
- After touching patient surroundings
Recognized training now more accessible than ever
In 2020, the virtual reality version of Tork Clean Hands Training was recognized by Interclean Amsterdam, a leading platform for cleaning and hygiene professionals. The training was praised by an international jury for its “user-friendly method of maintaining hand hygiene compliance in health care settings…It is the perfect solution for the well-recognized need to educate people worldwide on hand hygiene.”
Now, the desktop version makes it easier and more accessible for professionals to improve their hand hygiene. Access/download the free Tork Clean Hands Training here.
Sources:
1 WHO: Evidence for Hand Hygiene Guidelines
2 Journal of Hospital Infection: Role of hand hygiene in healthcare-associated infection prevention
3 WHO: The core components of infection prevention and control programs: from guidelines to implementation in real life
4 Procedia – Social and Behavioral Sciences: Engaging Engineering Students in Active Learning and Critical Thinking through Class Debates