BackgroundThe Hawthorne effect, or behaviour change due to awareness of being observed, is assumed to inflate hand hygiene compliance rates as measured by direct observation but there are limited data to support this.ObjectiveTo determine whether the presence of hand hygiene auditors was associated with an increase in hand hygiene events as measured by a real-time location system (RTLS).MethodsThe RTLS recorded all uses of alcohol-based hand rub and soap for 8 months in two units in an academic acute care hospital. The RTLS also tracked the movement of hospital hand hygiene auditors. Rates of hand hygiene events per dispenser per hour as measured by the RTLS were compared for dispensers within sight of auditors and those not exposed to auditors.ResultsThe hand hygiene event rate in dispensers visible to auditors (3.75/dispenser/h) was significantly higher than in dispensers not visible to the auditors at the same time (1.48; p=0.001) and in the same dispensers during the week prior (1.07; p<0.001). The rate increased significantly when auditors were present compared with 1–5 min prior to the auditors’ arrival (1.50; p=0.009). There were no significant changes inside patient rooms.ConclusionsHand hygiene event rates were approximately threefold higher in hallways within eyesight of an auditor compared with when no auditor was visible and the increase occurred after the auditors’ arrival. This is consistent with the existence of a Hawthorne effect localised to areas where the auditor is visible and calls into question the accuracy of publicly reported hospital hand hygiene compliance rates.
The paper presents a case study of a large Canadian law firm with a distinctive information culture that is vigorously implementing an information management strategy. Our findings suggest that, at least for this organization, information culture trumps information management in its impact on information use outcomes. Thus, the strongly held information values and behaviors in the firm accounted for more than onethird of the variance in information use outcomes. Employees did perceive a high level of information management activity in the firm, although information management played a smaller, perhaps indirect role in explaining information use outcomes. What might organizations do to improve information use? This study suggests that organizations might do well to recognize that, in the hustle and bustle to implement strategies and systems, information values and information culture will always have a defining influence on how people share and use information.
Nosocomial pathogens may be acquired by patients via their own unclean hands, but there has been relatively little emphasis on patient hand hygiene as a tool for preventing healthcare-associated infections (HCAIs). The aim of this systematic review was to determine the efficacy of patient hand hygiene interventions in reducing HCAIs and improving patient hand hygiene rates compared to usual care. Electronic databases and grey literature were searched to August 2014. Experimental and quasi-experimental studies were included if they evaluated a patient hand hygiene intervention conducted in an acute or chronic healthcare facility and included HCAI incidence and/or patient hand hygiene rates as an outcome. All steps were performed independently by two investigators. Ten studies were included, most of which were uncontrolled before-after studies (N=8). The majority of interventions (N=7) were multi-modal, with components similar to healthcare worker hand hygiene programmes, including education, reminders, audit and feedback, and provision of hand hygiene products. Six studies reported HCAI outcomes and four studies assessed patient hand hygiene rates; all demonstrated improvements but were at moderate to high risk of bias. In conclusion, interventions to improve patient hand hygiene may reduce the incidence of HCAIs and improve hand hygiene rates, but the quality of evidence is low. Future studies should use stronger designs and be more selective in their choice of outcomes.
Patients appear to perform hand hygiene infrequently, which may contribute to transmission of pathogens from the hospital environment via indirect contact or fecal-oral routes.
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Abbott's seminal (1988) work in sociology, "The System of Professions", has new relevance to the information professions in the 21st century. His model portrays professions locked in competition for jurisdiction over solvable problems, and librarianship figures prominently as a case exploration.
This paper evaluates short-term outcomes of community-engaged learning (CEL) initiatives within the field of user experience design (UXD). Qualitative data were gathered through a thematic analysis of 101 summative student reflections and 22 interview transcripts from 19 community partner organizations. Quantitative findings resulted from an analysis of 94 student surveys. Findings offer preliminary support for CEL initiatives in UXD education and reveal that CEL benefits both students and community partners. Students garnered UXD competencies, interpersonal skills, and increased empathy through participation in CEL initiatives. Community partners gained useful deliverables and an increased understanding of the discipline of UXD as part of their CEL engagement. Two primary recommendations are suggested for improving future CEL engagement: (1) designating a coordinator/point of contact to alleviate the management burden by centralizing communications; (2) providing a clear outline of the engagement deliverables and timelines up front. ____ Este documento evalúa los resultados a corto plazo del aprendizaje a través de la participación comunitaria (CEL, por sus siglas en inglés) dentro del campo del diseño de la experiencia del usuario (UXD por sus siglas en inglés). Se recopilaron datos cualitativos a través de un análisis temático de las reflexiones de 101 estudiantes y 22 transcripciones de entrevistas a 19 organizaciones comunitarias asociadas. Los hallazgos cuantitativos se obtuvieron del análisis de encuestas realizadas a 94 estudiantes. Estos resultados ofrecen un apoyo preliminar a las iniciativas de CEL en la educación UXD y revelan que CEL beneficia tanto a los estudiantes como a los integrantes de la comunidad. Los estudiantes adquirieron habilidades UXD, mejoraron sus relaciones interpersonales y demostraron una mayor empatía a través de la participación en iniciativas CEL. Los integrantes de la comunidad obtuvieron muy buenos resultados y una mayor comprensión de la disciplina de UXD como parte de su compromiso con CEL. Se sugieren dos recomendaciones fundamentales para mejorar la participación futura de CEL: (1) designar un coordinador o punto de contacto para aliviar la carga administrativa y centralizar las comunicaciones; (2) proporcionar desde el principio un esquema claro del compromiso para las entregas de los resultados y sus correspondientes plazos.
Office work is increasingly collaborative in the 21st century. ‘Information culture' is a broad set of values and behavioural workplace norms pertaining to information management and use. To investigate whether information culture influences use of collaborative information tools, conceptualization and measurement instruments are presented for information culture and measuring effective use. ‘Group adoption' is a behavioural proxy for effective use, and ‘information sharing' and ‘proactive information use' were selected as behavioural proxies for information culture. In a study of an engineering firm, group adoption was correlated with actual use of an information tool and with two tool attitude measures. Group adoption was also correlated with both information culture measures. The findings here suggest new avenues of research into the broader applicability of group adoption, and the ways in which conceptualization and measurement of information culture may be further developed.
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