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Impact and learner perspectives of a spaced-education platform to assess hand hygiene auditor competency

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 September 2024

Ana M. Vaughan-Malloy ,
Renée Lehane ,
Mary M. Wells  and
Thomas J. Sandora Open the ORCID record for Thomas J. Sandora [Opens in a new window]
Ana M. Vaughan-Malloy*
Affiliation:
Infection Prevention and Control, Boston Children’s Hospital, Boston, MA, USA Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Pediatrics, Boston Children’s Hospital, Boston, MA, USA Department of Pediatrics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
Renée Lehane
Affiliation:
Infection Prevention and Control, Boston Children’s Hospital, Boston, MA, USA
Mary M. Wells
Affiliation:
Infection Prevention and Control, Boston Children’s Hospital, Boston, MA, USA
Thomas J. Sandora
Affiliation:
Infection Prevention and Control, Boston Children’s Hospital, Boston, MA, USA Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Pediatrics, Boston Children’s Hospital, Boston, MA, USA Department of Pediatrics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
*
Corresponding author: Ana M. Vaughan-Malloy; Email: ana.vaughan-malloy@childrens.harvard.edu
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Abstract

Objective:

To ensure whether spaced education, which increases long-term knowledge retention, could be integrated into auditor competency assessment.

Design:

Quality improvement project.

Setting:

Academic, freestanding children’s hospital.

Participants:

Hand hygiene (HH) auditors.

Intervention:

We enrolled trained HH auditors in an online spaced-education platform to assess mastery of knowledge, delivering 46 unique questions at spaced intervals followed by rationale; we retired questions after 3 correct answers. An e-mailed 10-item survey gauged participant satisfaction with the program. The Wilcoxon signed-rank test was used to compare change in median knowledge score from first to final attempt.

Results:

A total of 12,120 questions were attempted by 126 auditors, and 49 (39%) completed the entire course. Median knowledge score increased significantly by 10.5 percentage points (IQR 4–15) between first and final attempts (P < 0.001). Thirty auditors (27%) responded to the survey. The majority agreed the number and complexity of questions were appropriate (57% and 67%, respectively). Eighty-seven percent reported the platform easy to navigate, and 77% agreed adequate time was provided for completion. Free-text suggestions included delivering fewer questions at a narrower spacing interval over a shorter time frame because of competing work demands.

Conclusions:

Auditor knowledge of HH indications and technique is critical to ensuring data validity. A spaced-education competency program improved HH auditor knowledge in the short term. Completion rate was low, and some participants expressed a desire for fewer questions over a shorter time frame. This study offers insight into ways to optimize spaced education as a potential tool for HH competency assessment.

Type
Original Article
Information
Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology , First View , pp. 1 - 5
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Copyright
© The Author(s), 2024. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of The Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America

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