World Hand Hygiene Day

It is World Hand Hygiene Day!

I became aware of this around 3:30pm today (May 5th) so I did not participate in or plan any activities. I stumbled upon the information while reviewing materials on hand hygiene. You may be aware that I am preparing a paper on technology solutions for hand hygiene compliance for publishing.

How did I choose the topic you may ask. I selected the topic during my Research Methods course at NCU (the blog for the course is: https://fmooresignatureassignment3.blogspot.com).  I believe my first paper for the course was on employee compliance with policies and procedures for security reasons. I started with that topic then moved on to employee monitoring (as a way to ensure employee compliance) then moved on to electronic monitoring for hand hygiene compliance. I did not plan to get into health topics / healthcare, it just happened. I found interesting articles on hand hygiene compliance that made me very interested in the topic. On July 27, 2016, I wrote in the blog:

"...I am liking the topic more and more. I found one article on the bundling of strategies to prevent infection control / improve hand hygiene compliance. The authors referred to this as multimodal strategies. Of course, this reminded me of a paper I completed on multimodal biometrics for mobile privacy and security..."

I should also mention that my mother is in healthcare and she always tells me to wash my hands. Washing hands is also part of everyone's life. We are all told to wash our hands after using the bathroom, before eating, and so on.

Make It Better By Stopping For A While

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Today, I am drinking green tea again. Recently, I had lots of fluids (soda, juice, almond milk) which may have caused my chest to hurt. So now I am drinking way less fluids. I would hate to be back on oxygen like I was in the hospital.

The hand hygiene compliance paper is not yet finished. I stopped working on the paper for a few days so that: (1) I will look at it anew (with "fresh" eyes) when I start working on it again, and (2) I will think of new ideas and make new connections while away. When I start working on the paper again, I am sure I will notice issues that I missed before and will have other ideas on how to organize the paper and information to include. Hopefully, I will also hear from the folks I asked to critically review the paper when I am ready to start working on it again.

I was working on another paper that benefited from my time away from it. I noticed issues and even came up with a new theory to organize the literature. The paper is much better.

Still Working

I am still working on the hand hygiene paper. I have reviewed and edited most of the paper. There is still work to do reviewing the remaining sections. 

I was out yesterday taking care of business (related to my vehicle). The repair of my vehicle is finally moving forward. Hopefully, all repairs will be completed in a few weeks and the accident will be a distant memory!

Progress With Paper

I am still working on my paper on electronic hand hygiene compliance monitoring for publishing. I am finding a lot of recent research on the topic, i.e. research published since I completed my signature assignment (the assignment is available here: https://w.taskstream.com/ts/moore783/SignatureAssignmentProposalMonitoring.html/acf5e6eq00akfcfkf7e8edfefl). I decided to add some of the recent research to the paper. I also sent a draft to the professor who graded the signature assignment for review.

I am trying not to exert myself too much. Just recently, I was dealing with some serious health issues. A few days ago, my mother sent me this photo to remind me of my journey:

Update 4/21

I am enjoying a cup of green tea while I work. I am steadily getting the work on my hand hygiene paper done.

 

 

I decided to have a second pair of eyes review my latest version so I sent the paper to my father for review. Hopefully, he has some time to do a thorough review.

I had an appointment at Enterprise Rent-a-Car scheduled for today (Allstate decided to assist me with the rental of a vehicle to get around while my vehicle is being repaired). The appointment was canceled because Enterprise is out of vehicles for rent.

It is surprising that so many people are renting cars. Months ago, I tried to rent a vehicle and got the same result. People are probably renting cars for travel/vacation. When I was on vacation about six months ago, I was amazed that so many people were traveling. The highways were full. The hotels were fully booked. There seems to be a mad rush to catch up on vacation now that COVID is less of an issue. 

I am still waiting for Allstate to make a decision on the amount I will receive for inconvenience (I assume the matter is not closed). I am hoping I will receive more than they are currently offering.

Working, working, working

I am working on revising/updating the paper on hand hygiene compliance. Enjoying homemade mints too….

Paper Edited And Ready For Publishing

I made minor changes to the paper that includes the proposal for a study on technology solutions for hand hygiene compliance (I prepared the proposal for the Research Methods course - "under the hood" information for the course shown here: https://fmooresignatureassignment3.blogspot.com/). The paper is now ready for publishing again.

I had trouble finding journals that accept "proposal" papers so I decided to submit a question about acceptance of this "different" paper to a journal. I mentioned that the paper uses a new theory for explaining employee performance in the hand hygiene area - the habit-forming theory. One of the main hypotheses in the paper is that technology solutions for hand hygiene compliance will improve employee performance in the short term in a manner that follows an asymptotic curve, i.e. there a steady increase in performance that peaks at a certain level. This is in line with the habit-forming theory.

I hope to hear from the editor soon.

 

 

 

 

 

Videos In Healthcare

My research on videos has included the use of videos in online reviews (reviews on websites such as yelp.com) and real estate, video monitoring of employees for hand hygiene compliance (one of the technologies used), and training videos. Today, I discovered videos are also used a lot in healthcare - for surgical education (video coaching), to assist with surgery, for review of surgical skills, and so on. I skimmed quite a few articles with interest.

One of the articles I found was:

Video Coaching in Surgical Education: Utility, Opportunities, and Barriers to Implementation
By: Andrew C. Esposito MD, Nathan A. Coppersmith MD, Erin M. White MD, MBS, Peter S. Yoo MD
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1931720421003482
 
It reported that surgical residents and other subjects overwhelmingly find video-based coaching of surgery (in the operating room) useful. Video-based coaching also assists with skill acquisition.

It is interesting that videos are so significant in surgical education. It is different for online reviews. A video does not greatly improve the quality of a review.

Hand washing

Out and about again today.

I found this interesting article that looked into the psychology of hand washing / hand hygiene:

Developing professional habits of hand hygiene in intensive care settings: An action-research intervention

By: Giuseppe Battistella, Giuliano Berto, Stefania Bazzo

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0964339716300659#!

The researchers found that hand washing is definitely a habit, which is related to (automatically follows from) the perception that hands are “dirty.” It appears to be a social activity.

Posts On Journal Articles

I found some interesting journal articles that informed me of issues and made me think of "possibilities." I wrote about them in LinkedIn. Here are the posts:

Post 1

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My issue today: automation. Just yesterday, I wrote that systems will be assisting with the creation of diagrams in software development (see post: https://fahmeenaodetta.blogspot.com/2022/07/change.html). In past jobs, I have been praised for diagrams I created. I understand why people would resist automation.

I did not realize that automation is an issue for hand hygiene. I found an article that argues: "Human observation is the gold standard for measuring compliance, but its utility is increasingly being questioned with calls for the use of video monitoring approaches" (see article here: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0196655322001511). This seems like a valid argument.

Did you see my proposal for a study on hand hygiene compliance monitoring and its effects on performance and employee satisfaction? Two of the research questions are:

RQ1: Do technology solutions that monitor hand hygiene compliance result in improved employee performance in the short-term because employees develop the habit of cleaning/washing their hands (i.e. is there a steady increase in performance that peaks at a certain level – performance follows an asymptotic curve)?

RQ2: What is the longer-term performance impact of implementing a technology solution that monitors hand hygiene compliance, i.e. the performance impact after 1 year and beyond (after 3, 4, 5 years etc.)?

Read it here: https://w.taskstream.com/ts/moore783/SignatureAssignmentProposalMonitoring.html/acf5e6eq00akfcfkf7e8edfefl

#automation #handhygiene #videomonitoring #research #phdresearch #healthcare


Post 2

This journal article provides valuable information on the career decision-making process:

Journal article: Making better career decisions: From challenges to opportunities
By: Itamar Gatia, Viktória Kulcsár
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0001879121000178

#career #decisionmaking #jobs #jobsearch #psychology #technology

 
Post 3

Interesting paper on the effectiveness of a mandatory program for the unemployed in Denmark:

Journal article: How to help unemployed find jobs quickly: Experimental evidence from a mandatory activation program
By: Brian Krogh Graversen, Jan C. van Ours
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0047272708000777

#unemployedtraining #unemployment #hr #job

Technology and productivity

I found an interesting article on 12 Ways Technology Can Increase Workplace Productivity: https://www.tinypulse.com/blog/12-ways-technology-can-increase-workplace-productivity. I like this topic. This reminds me of a paper I prepared on the performance impacts of technology (on hand hygiene compliance). Some of the research questions include: 

 

RQ1: Do technology solutions that monitor hand hygiene compliance result in improved employee performance in the short-term because employees develop the habit of cleaning/washing their hands (i.e. is there a steady increase in performance that peaks at a certain level – performance follows an asymptotic curve)? 

RQ2. What is the longer-term performance impact of implementing a technology solution that monitors hand hygiene compliance, i.e. the performance impact after 1 year and beyond (after 3, 4, 5 years etc.)? RQ3. Would employee job satisfaction and retention increase, decrease or remain unchanged following the implementation of the technology solution that monitors hand hygiene compliance? 

 

The paper is available here: https://w.taskstream.com/ts/moore783/SignatureAssignmentProposalMonitoring.html/acf5e6eq00akfcfkf7e8edfefl 

(from blog on Completing the PhD-level Research Methods course at NCU: https://fmooresignatureassignment3.blogspot.com/)