HHA Launches New Hand Hygiene Module

The National Hand Hygiene Initiative (NHHI) is a culture change program to reduce the rate healthcare associated infections in Australia.

• provision of alcohol-based handrub at the point of care


• monitoring and feedback of hand hygiene performance according to the WHO ‘5 Moments for Hand Hygiene’


• education of healthcare workers about hand hygiene and infection control.

To assist with education of healthcare workers, Hand Hygiene Australia (HHA) developed online learning modules about hand hygiene during the initial phases of the national program. In addition to a standard module, there are profession-specific learning modules for nurses and midwives, medical practitioners, allied health practitioners, non-clinical staff and student health practitioners.
HHA has recently launched a new learning management system to host these learning modules. The new system represents an improvement over the previous system in a number of ways, including a modern interface with added functionality and improved reporting capabilities for administrators at each health organisation. But most importantly, the system offers an improved learner experience, with learners being able to save and return to modules and access historical records and certificates.
The new system also allows HHA to support other learning modules. The first additional learning module is a general introduction to infection control for healthcare workers developed by the Australian Commission in Quality and Safety in Health Care, called the ‘Infection Control Orientation’.
This module is designed to be used by health service organisations as part of their workforce orientation program in infection prevention and control. It provides an overview of the key areas of infection prevention and control that should be used as a starting point for ongoing education of both clinical and non-clinical health care workers.
It aims to help all healthcare workers minimise the risk and prevent the spread of infection and infectious agents. This module contains three levels that reflect the variation in risk of exposure to blood and body substances that different roles may have. Users should choose the content that best reflects that level of risk e.g., direct contact, indirect contact or no contact with blood or body substances.

The HHA learning management system can be accessed here: www.hha.org.au/LearningPackage/olp-home.aspx For queries related to the system, please email hhalearning@austin.org.au
By Kate Ryan, Project Officer, Hand Hygiene Australia and Andrew Stewardson, National Program Manager, Hand Hygiene Australia.