Wearable technology has become more common in the care of cancer patients, but it can also boost adherence to certain protocols, such as hand hygiene.
Anne Corbett, MS, BSN, RN, nurse manager of the stem cell transplant unit at Hackensack University Medical Center
in New Jersey, is now using this technology at her hospital where it was first piloted in October 2022 in her unit, which consists of 34 beds total within two separate units right next to each other, to see how the staff of approximately 85 people—including nurses, patient care technicians, unit clerks, nurse practitioners, pharmacists, social workers, and others involved in the care of patients here—can improve their hand hygiene scores.
“Hand hygiene plays an important role within any healthcare system, but particularly within oncology, and definitely within a stem cell transplant unit,” Corbett says.
This wearable technology comes in the form of a card worn along with a nurse’s ID.
“We have various hubs in the unit, around the unit, and overhead a patient’s door,” Corbett explains. “When you go in [a patient’s room], it will automatically read that the nurse is in the room and has performed hand hygiene.”
Paige Turco RN, Anne Corbett NM, and Samantha Boonstra RN at Hackensack University Medical Center demonstrate how the hospital tracks hand hygiene adherence with wearable technology.
The hubs would also identify when nurses used hand sanitizer dispensers outside patients’ rooms. After a staff member sanitizes or wash their hands, they would have 45 seconds to enter a patient’s room and another 20 seconds to sanitize or rewash their hands. The staff member would have 20 seconds before or after exiting a patient’s room to complete the hand hygiene procedure.
“If you think of a nurse workflow, you walk out, put your hand in the Purell [dispenser] and walk,” Corbett says. “That’s why we have the hubs around. So, as they come out of a room, most nurses do hand hygiene and walk to their next task. So the hubs and the various locations of the unit, if the nurse is performing hand hygiene as she’s walking, [the hub] will capture that.”
Hubs can collect information without the nurse manually tapping or scanning their ID. Corbett adds that nurses can stand in front of the hub for approximately 15 seconds while preparing to enter the room, including putting on their masks and gloves.
The hubs constantly collect information on hand hygiene frequency, and Corbett shares the data with her team. She mentions that during the piloting stage, in an attempt to get everyone engaged in this technology, she would discuss it with them at daily huddles and address any questions the staff had. Several staff members voiced one particular concern, which was eased with answers from the company.
“The company was very supportive, came around, and answered questions,” Corbett says. “As we educated the staff, there was a bit of a perception of, ‘You’re tracking me. You know where I am.’ So once that was sorted out, people were fine. And people were OK with all of that.”
Once more data were collected, Corbett and other unit leads received emails about their team’s hand hygiene performance on a personnel level. Individual nurses would also receive weekly emails about their compliance, which Corbett noted created healthy competition.
“The email created great camaraderie and great competition among team members. It got people engaged,” Corbett says. “And people were like, ‘Well, I was 95%, you were 94%.’ And then you recognize them at the huddle areas and staff meetings, and more people are talking about it.”
As wearable technology is used in the clinical setting, nurses are in a unique position to celebrate the progress being made so far while informing patients about how it is being used.
“It’s something that [nurses] should be proud to wear, and it’s a good thing to share with their patients in a positive light,” Corbett says. “Oncology patients are one of the savviest patients in the world,…and they know so much more about their disease….
“With anything technology like that, I think we should be celebrating and then say, ‘Look at the advancements where we’re coming to, and the future is only getting brighter for the care that you’ll continue to receive over the next five years or so.”
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