Hancock, Mich.-based UP Health System - Portage held its annual nurse competency week, where 100 nurses reviewed policies to prevent patient harm and hospital-acquired infections, WLUC reports.
"Our big focus this year on harm prevention is hand hygiene and that is important for not only nurses but for everyone in the public," said nurse educator and nursing supervisor Wanda Givens, RN.
The hospital has signs and sanitizing stations posted at each patient room doorway. The nurses also went over procedures they don't deal with regularly.
"We have various stations that revolve around Foley catheter insertion and removal and early removal and also central line access and the proper technique to care for that line and preventing infection in our patients," Ms. Givens said.
The hospital has held the annual training for the past two decades.
"I think it is something you will see more and more with other disciplines in healthcare going forward, said assistant CNO Ryan Heinonen, MSN, RN. "In rural healthcare we often don't see a lot of the things that a much larger hospital would see on a consistent basis, so I think a lot of the smaller hospitals utilize this type of training."