2012 Volume 27 Issue 5 Pages 346-352
With respect to infection control education, our hospital lacked a systematic training program intended for our entire staff. General information on preventive measures against infections was mainly covered in group education programs held twice a year, offering limited infection control education. Therefore, to initiate changes in our behavior towards infection prevention, we began an infection prevention training program in 2008 using the clinical ladder system focusing on issues in our practice. However, due to insufficient clarification of these issues and effective solutions within each department, the program changed the behaviors of only some nurses, while failing to change the collective behavior of our entire nursing staff. Thus, the program still left us with the challenge of how to continue carrying out infection preventive measures consistently. This led us to consider and adopt another infection prevention training program using the clinical ladder system; in this program, the focus was placed on the progress of changes in the views and behaviors of nurses towards infection prevention. As a result, measures drawn up to resolve issues within each department could be successfully put into action, and changes eventually took place in the collective behavior of our entire nursing staff. Based on this outcome, we found that this training program using the clinical ladder system to evaluate behavioral changes in nurses towards issues in their practice could bring about changes in the collective behavior of the entire nursing staff. The system is thus useful in implementing practical and effective preventive measures against infections.
