Posted in Hand Hygiene, Healthcare Professional Engagement, Uncategorized, tagged academia, brave, engagement, front line ownership, Hand Hygiene, Healthcare, impact, NHS on May 20, 2015| Leave a Comment »
Posted in Hand Hygiene, Ph.D. Research, Uncategorized, tagged Award, Hand Hygiene and Technology, Healthcare, Human Behaviour, IP2013, Meaning of Data, Patient Safety, Thesis on October 9, 2013| Leave a Comment »
Since coming back from #IP2013 I’ve been continuing to put the final touches to my thesis on the measurement of hand hygiene.
Final touches take a long time…that much I can definitely state with confidence! But I’m happy that with each reading the chapters appear to take on more clarity, and confirm the over-arching links which I believe emerge from the work.
In parallel with finalising the thesis, this month sees me developing further my plans for the research post-submission. Indications from the findings are that they provide significant scope for development. Happily this is not just my opinion, and feedback from dissemination activities and discussions have encouraged my development plans. My main focus will be in moving forward with work on hand hygiene measurement, ensuring that data generated from future systems provides meaning to those receiving it, to enable them to make improvements to Patient safety. This proposed work will include exploring both technology and human behaviour, continuing and extending that already undertaken in my PhD, and looking to collaborate with experts within the field: both within healthcare and industry.
I’m very excited by the opportunity to combine both my academic and industrial experience, whilst remaining within a healthcare setting, the field I have come to feel so passionate and interested in over the past 5 years. I am, as I have noted before, incredibly lucky to have been inspired by some wonderful people within this sector – with timely reference to the award-winning team who have hosted my research…you may also have heard about their success here…!
Posted in Hand Hygiene, Ph.D. Research, tagged Audit, Hand Hygiene, Healthcare, Study 3, Thesis on December 17, 2012| Leave a Comment »
Had a great meeting this morning at my Case Study site (an Acute Trust NHS University Hospital), where I have been finalising the plans for Study 3 – an observational study investigating the behavioural aspects of Hand Hygiene, to add to the work I have already been doing on Hand Hygiene Auditing and the potential role for technology (for more information, see here).
The written thesis continues to grow. Slowly. Working on a review of Hand Hygiene Literature at the moment – sample of current headings being:
History of Hand Hygiene
Importance of Hand Hygiene
Chain of Infection
Hands as Vectors for Pathogen Transmission
Environment as Reservoir for Pathogens
Hand Hygiene Compliance
Ideal Standards
Problems with Adherence
Behavioural Influences on Adherence – Inherent/Elective
Auditing
Concept and Definition
Auditing in Healthcare
Hand Hygiene Auditing
Problems of Hand Hygiene Auditing
Hand Hygiene Technologies
Purpose of existing technologies – Monitoring, Measurement, Feedback (Audit)
Fair to say there is a long way to go, but really looking forward to the final stage of ‘active’ reasearch before 5 months of solid writing, reviewing, re-writing and final submission in June 2013. Really interested in following up the emergent themes from the work, and continuing to work with some of the amazing people who are so motivating in this field. For now though, it’s back to the 70,000 words….
Posted in Hand Hygiene, Ph.D. Research, tagged Dissertation, Hand Hygiene, Healthcare, Infection Control, PhD, Research, Technology on November 12, 2012| Leave a Comment »
Just a quick post whilst I let my head work out what to do with the pages of notes I’ve amassed whilst working on the structure of my PhD Dissertation ‘Background’ chapter…. I decided thinking about something else may allow it time to settle before I start adding in the next layer…
One of the key themes of my research is the potential for technology within the field of Healthcare Hand Hygiene, primarily to aid accurate monitoring, measurement and feedback – but through researching for such examples, all kinds of innovations have surfaced. My interest lies in how these technologies are perceived by the Healthcare Professionals themselves, from a ‘fit for purpose’ aspect, and also how they may inspire different types of innovations or interventions themselves. Thus, for a start, whilst examples shown to some participants in my research were judged not to be ‘fit for purpose’ they did inspire great discussion about how Hand Hygiene could be improved through better education, using a combination of technology and training. The technology itself was seen as a tool for something entirely different from it was being marketed, yet the end goal – improving Hand Hygiene – may be the same. A great example of the importance of the context, and allowing a wide range of thinking prior to implementing innovations. sometimes, perhaps, it may be better to ignore what it says on the tin….