Digital Commons Network^™

Can You Escape An Infection?, Teresa Flowers, Jennifer Mcconnell

Nursing Research & Professional Development Conference

Background: Healthcare acquired infections are a major safety concern for both health care providers and patients; and increases morbidity, mortality, length of stay and costs.

Local Problem: In 2021, there was an increase in infections at Atrium Health Stanly (10 infections up from four in 2020). For years, staff were educated through learning modules. Teammtes were bored with this method and did not retain the information. The team decided to incorporate an Escape Room as a creative educational opportunity to increase knowledge of infection prevention evidence-based best practices.

Method: The escape rooms were focused on quality improvement topics and ways …

Putting The Kibosh On Bugs: Nurses Lead Reduction In Blood Culture Contamination Rates, Echo Ashley

Nursing Research & Professional Development Conference

Background

Blood culture contamination results in unnecessary waste of supplies and resources, increased medical costs related to inappropriate of antibiotics, and threatens successful antibiotic stewardship. A spike in blood culture contamination rates in emergency department settings has been examined in relation to elevated patient acuity levels. Other studies have examined the financial impact of contaminated blood cultures and found that, on average, there is a $4538 cost savings associated with prevention of blood culture contamination. Blood culture contamination rates within a local emergency department increased to 5% which was above the national benchmark of 2.3%. Evaluation of pre-intervention data revealed …