McMaster students offer SickKids hospital ways to keep staff and patients safer
Students have suggestions for safety measures with protective equipment
Toronto's SickKids Hospital says the work of a McMaster University student project will help shape some of their initiatives to protect patients, staff and the transmission of infections.
In the hospital world, gowns, gloves and masks are known as personal protective equipment (PPE).
This includes the way staff gown and de-gown, where staff get their PPE to put on and ways to increase the general usage of PPE.
"On the surface this seems deceptively easy but the order and method in which you put on and take off PPE is important to ensure full protection," said Dr. Lennox Huang, Chief Medical Officer and Vice President for Medical and Academic Affairs at SickKids, in an email to CBC News.
Alex Johnston was one of the five students working on the project throughout last year. She's now going into her fourth year of her Bachelor of Science degree, studying psychology neuroscience behaviour.
She says by using design thinking that they've learned throughout the course, they made two major suggestions to the hospital.
Access to equipment
After walking around the hospital, one recommendation was to increase access to the equipment, having it located near more entrances.
"The closer it is, the more likely the physical is to put it on versus if they were about to walk in and realize they had to go like a few minutes down the hall to get the personal protective equipment," said Johnston.
Making it easier for staff to practice safely is always on our minds when we have opportunities to redesign existing spaces and to design and build new workplaces.- Dr. Lennox Huang, Chief Medical Officer and Vice President for Medical and Academic Affairs, SickKids Hospital
Huang says placing PPE as close as possible to where a staff member needs it is the best way to enhance proper use and ultimately enhance staff and patient safety.
One of the barriers to this he says, is lack of space.
"After hearing the students' observations, where possible we are looking to standardize the PPE carts in clinical areas so they will be familiar to doctors and nurses whether they are caring for patients on one floor versus another," said Huang.
"Making it easier for staff to practice safely is always on our minds when we have opportunities to redesign existing spaces and to design and build new workplaces," said Huang.
Hospital signs
The second recommendation Johnston says they made was to increase signage, instructing staff on what to wear, when to wear it, and how to put on and take off equipment.
Johnston says her group designed multiple signs that could be used.
Huang says the hospital has signs for PPE located outside of every patient room and across all patient care areas, but one of the challenges that the student project highlighted is that over time, signs blend into the environment and become easier to miss.
"In part because of the student's work we are looking at ways to have better visual prompts for personal protective equipment," said Huang. "In addition to visual prompts, we try to reinforce the correct use of PPE through educational programs that include demonstration and simulation whenever possible."
He says the hospital's safety program includes safety coaches — a program in which peers provide positive and constructive feedback to each other about a variety of safety issues in the workplace.
The students worked on the project from September up until they presented their prototype to Huang in April.
It's a pretty cool experience to know that we were able to do something that was hopefully meaningful and will hopefully have an impact.- Alex Johnston, McMaster University student
Huang says the results of the student project have been shared with hospital quality and safety leaders.
"We are taking a broader look at infection control across the hospital and the work of the students will help to shape some of our initiatives such as the PPE cart example," said Huang.
Innovation by design
Johnston says it was nice having "real-world" experience in the course.
"It's a pretty cool experience to know that we were able to do something that was hopefully meaningful and will hopefully have an impact."
The innovation by design course is offered by the Health Leadership Academy at McMaster, where Michael Hartmann is a co-director and course instructor.
He says the university approached SickKids with the partnership idea.
Hartmann says they thought of something students could work on using design methodology and settled on how they could help hospital personnel make better use of PPE.
SickKids is one of the various stakeholders the innovation by design course is working with.
"It's very gratifying that a lot of these projects are being picked up by companies," said Hartmann.
He says they use design as a way to think about projects and that it reinforces some of the leadership capabilities he thinks people need to develop and the ability to work effectively in teams is a key.
"Having a great idea is wonderful, but an idea that doesn't get implemented is just an idea. So how do you get an idea that an organization is actually going to pick up and do something with."
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