After writing extensively for OMNI Health Care for almost two years, journalist Deron Hamel was able to spark a positive change of events at one of the company’s 17 long-term care homes.
Springdale Country Manor held its first in-service Dec. 4 geared specifically towards teaching residents the importance of proper hand hygiene. The inaugural event for both the home and the organization was prompted by an interview administrator Maureen Imamovic had with Hamel.
Imamovic says Hamel was interviewing her regarding an outbreak at the home in which she was stressing the importance of hand-hygiene practices for both staff and families.
That’s when Hamel asked her if anything else could be done to prevent future outbreaks, recalls Imamovic.
“We were talking about hand washing and he said to me ‘well what about residents? Is anyone teaching residents how to hand wash?’ And I was just dumbfounded,” she says. “There is what your community partners can bring to you, that is thinking outside the box. I work in this environment and I had never thought of that.”
Fourteen residents attended the in-service led by Simon Lee, a health inspector from the Peterborough County-City Health Unit.
Lee applauds the home for taking the proactive stance, noting this is the first time he’s been tasked to educate residents on hand washing. He adds he would like to see more long-term care homes approaching their local health units to educate residents on hand washing.
“We would definitely like to see more (long-term care homes) do this,” says Lee, adding that hand washing in the “single most important method for preventing the spread of germs.”
Hamel says his ability to highlight an area that needed improvement stems from writing hundreds of OMNI stories and understanding the organization’s mission, vision and values. As education is a cornerstone of OMNI culture, Hamel says he saw an opportunity for the company to expand their learning to residents.
“Everyone was teaching the staff members, everyone was teaching visitors and family members about the importance of having clean hands but no one was talking to the residents about it,” says Hamel. “I just started asking administrators on how they were engaging residents in keeping their hands clean and having good hand-hygiene practices.”
Imamovic says this isn’t the first time an interview with Hamel has helped glean new thoughts or further develop her own.
During the interview process Hamel often asks her ‘what more can be done’ regarding an issue. This question has pushed her to think of new ways the home could be doing more.
Discussing the issue can lead to new creativity or more deliberate thinking on earlier ideas.
Imamovic says such questions has helped her most recently formulate new ways she could engage with the community and will be included in her strategic plan for next year.
“There was an idea I had never thought of until Deron was actually interviewing me and pushing me — what are other ways you can get involved, what are other ways your home can be involved with your community partners and in the community,” she says. “It just pushes you to think a little bit.”
To read the news story on OMNI’s first hand washing in-service, click here.
If you would like to learn more about change-generating question designs, click here.
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