Abstract
Training in infection prevention and control (IPC) measures is crucial to minimise the incidence of healthcare-associated infections (HAIs), a growing cause of patient illness and death in hospital. This paper describes a participative approach to developing a prototype tablet-based digital training tool using dynamic visualisation- led techniques to raise awareness and understanding of IPC and HAIs for hospital- based staff. An evidence-based and iterative visualisation prototyping process was used to engage staff and invite contributions from across a number of roles within the NHS, a typically hierarchical sector. Findings suggest the visualisation-led approach was helpful in articulating the behaviours of pathogens and staff and their interactions within the complex setting and service ecology of the NHS and in making IPC training materials clearer and more engaging.
Keywords
infection prevention and control; service ecology; dynamic visualisation; prototyping; participative approach
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2016.76
Citation
Macdonald, A., Loudon, D., Wan, S., and Macduff, C. (2016) Disentangling complexity: a visualisation-led tool for healthcare associated infection training, in Lloyd, P. and Bohemia, E. (eds.), Future Focused Thinking - DRS International Conference 2016, 27 - 30 June, Brighton, United Kingdom. https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2016.76
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Disentangling complexity: a visualisation-led tool for healthcare associated infection training
Training in infection prevention and control (IPC) measures is crucial to minimise the incidence of healthcare-associated infections (HAIs), a growing cause of patient illness and death in hospital. This paper describes a participative approach to developing a prototype tablet-based digital training tool using dynamic visualisation- led techniques to raise awareness and understanding of IPC and HAIs for hospital- based staff. An evidence-based and iterative visualisation prototyping process was used to engage staff and invite contributions from across a number of roles within the NHS, a typically hierarchical sector. Findings suggest the visualisation-led approach was helpful in articulating the behaviours of pathogens and staff and their interactions within the complex setting and service ecology of the NHS and in making IPC training materials clearer and more engaging.