A recent study has revealed that about 80% of professionals in the healthcare industry agreed that they would want to meet hand hygiene compliance better.
The study emphasises how much importance is assigned by healthcare professionals towards hygiene compliance. This survey involving upwards of a thousand healthcare professionals across 5 countries also made it evident that 60 percent of the professionals would prefer hand hygiene to be more emphasised within their units. 40 percent of the participants expressed that they wanted better hand hygiene training. These findings signify that healthcare industry management teams should lay a strong focus on enhancing the standards of hand hygiene. Tork, a sub-brand of globally-renowned health and hygiene company Essity, is among the very first companies to unveil a virtual reality (VR) based, interactive simulation for hand hygiene training.
The training simulation brings players into a virtual setting, where they step into the shoes of an on-duty physician or a nurse within a hospital unit. The participant has to take care of various patients in the simulation, whilst being compliant of the ‘5 Moments for Hand Hygiene’ guidelines set out by the World Health Organization (WHO). These set standards are used to evaluate their hand hygiene compliance results.
Professor Didier Pittet, Director of Infection Control Programme & WHO Collaborating Centre on Patient Safety, University of Geneva Hospitals and Faculty of Medicine Geneva, Switzerland, spoke regarding the prospects of the VR training system. He explained that healthcare professionals acknowledge the significance of proper hand hygiene, which is what the training revolves around. The inventive VR training simulation enables knowledge testing within a simulated patient environment, and rectification when mistakes are made.
The virtual reality programme, known as Tork VR Clean Hands Training and Education, is being regarded as a convenient and advantageous training option. It is adding inspiration to hand hygiene training by actively engaging participants. Professionals are put in a series of real-life circumstances within the VR setting, where they can evaluate their hand hygiene readiness. They can try multiple times until they get the training fundamentals down, enhancing their hygiene standards in the process. The VR training leads to improvements in real-life hand hygiene.
Tom Bergin, Healthcare Marketing Director at Essay, revealed that four among five healthcare professionals expressed the need for improving their compliance to existing hand hygiene standards. The professionals also expressed the requirement for research-based training.
The simulation development process involved collaborations with university hospitals, globally-renowned hand hygiene experts and behavioural scientists. Their input helped the developers to create the evidence-driven VR training system. The newly created simulation system is being seen as a major development in the domain of hand hygiene compliance training. – Tom Bergin
Optimal hand hygiene is considered as the most vital aspect of infection control and prevention within healthcare facilities. Tork VR Clean Hands Training and Education is being seen as a clear-cut solution for offering standardised training to professionals in the healthcare industry. It can make a substantial difference towards improving hand hygiene.
