PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Arti Maria
AU  - Ankur Sooden
AU  - Rashmi Wadhwa
AU  - Ravleen Kaur
AU  - Indu Gaur
AU  - Kalsang Lhamo
AU  - Vallamkonda Nagaratna
TI  - Improving handwashing among parent-attendants visiting a newborn unit practising family participatory care
AID  - 10.1136/bmjoq-2022-001811
DP  - 2022 Oct 01
TA  - BMJ Open Quality
PG  - e001811
VI  - 11
IP  - Suppl 1
4099  - http://bmjopenquality.bmj.com/content/11/Suppl_1/e001811.short
4100  - http://bmjopenquality.bmj.com/content/11/Suppl_1/e001811.full
SO  - BMJ Open Qual2022 Oct 01; 11
AB  - In our newborn intensive care unit (NICU), we practise family participatory care, where the unit staff encourage parents and attendants of sick newborns to partner with them and be involved in care for their babies. There remains a concern that this practice may increase the risk of nosocomial infections being carried into the unit by parent-attendants. Staff observed that handwashing behaviours were suboptimal and inconsistent among parent-attendants. With facilitation from an improvement coach, we formed a quality improvement team of NICU staff to improve hand hygiene practices among attendants. From a baseline estimate of around 20% of attendants adhering to hand hygiene standards, the team planned to reach a target of 80% over 8 weeks by introducing a series of changes. At the end of 9 weeks, 80% of attendants were following standard hand hygiene practices.All data relevant to the study are included in the article or uploaded as supplemental information.