International Infection Prevention Week shines a spotlight on the crucial part infection prevention plays in the prevention of healthcare-associated infections every year.

This year, with a global theme of ‘Celebrating the Fundamentals of Infection Prevention’, was no different. Getting back to basics like performing hand hygiene, cleaning shared patient equipment, and cleaning high-touch points, to name a few, are the simple things we can all do to keep our patients, residents, colleagues and the public safe.

GAMA Healthcare took this a step further and launched the ‘Moments that Matter’ campaign. Our Sales and Clinical Team were out and about supporting facilities in their own awareness campaigns, ensuring those ‘moments’ don’t get forgotten or lost along the way. A few lucky facilities received a visit from the ‘Bug’ to support their week’s activities. Facilities had access to supporting materials including posters and screensavers that serve as reminders of the essential, simple steps that everyone can take to contribute to a safe healthcare environment. Small, thought-provoking articles were shared with Infection Prevention Leads and on social media to help spark those conversations that might just trigger someone to perform hand hygiene or clean a light switch.

During the webinar, Professor Brett Mitchell shared some thoughts and insights into the key elements of infection prevention and how the attitudes of healthcare workers can affect them employing basic infection prevention strategies. Brett also discussed topics including ventilation and clean air, preventing infection in residents with long-term indwelling catheters, chemical-free cleaning, and the use of gloves. Brett shared his motto for the use of gloves: “If it’s sticky and wet and not yours, wear gloves”. Of course, following standard precautions is the key and definitely a ‘Moment that Matters’. Amy Cartwright, Clinical Nurse Educator, discussed some tools to support infection prevention education and enhance daily practices. An interesting question regarding cleaning was whether the ‘S’ shaped wipe is more or less effective than the inside-out method. To explore this topic further and uncover Amy’s insights, you can watch the full webinar recording here.

Posters were made available to facilities looking for something a little extra for their own awareness campaigns. Those ‘Moments that Matter’ posters highlighted patient and resident hand hygiene, decontaminating a visibly dirty surface, checking your air purifier is on and decontaminating before and after procedures. These ‘moments’ are just a small example of the ‘Moments that Matter’ which is why the final piece of the campaign was a competition.

GAMA invited healthcare workers to use their creativity to capture the ‘Moments that Matter’ through photography and explain why they are significant. We received a raft of entries that were very creative, imaginative and showed that infection prevention is a fundamental part of healthcare workers’ days. While the Infection Prevention cohort is incredibly dedicated and hardworking, the initiative looked to provide a platform for collaboration and acknowledgement. The adage that “infection prevention is everyone’s business” rang true in the entries with cleaners and clinicians being nominated. Take a look at the winners here.

So, we say farewell to another IIPW for this year and look forward to 2024. I am sure we will see some more spectacular antics from our GAMA team and our colleagues in the field. Perhaps the ‘Bug’ will make another appearance in October 20th-26th, 2024…