Germ’s Journey Education Resources: Handwashing for Children V1
Research type
Research Study
Full title
A Germ’s Journey Soaper Heros: Interactive educational handwashing interventions for children to increase understanding of health hygiene and reduce infection rates on paediatric hospital wards.
IRAS ID
273440
Contact name
Katie Laird
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
De Montfort University
ISRCTN Number
ISRCTN15657586
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
N/A, N/A
Duration of Study in the UK
2 years, 0 months, 1 days
Research summary
Research Summary
This research project aims to study the effectiveness of the educational intervention ‘A Germ’s Journey Soaper Heroes’ which are hand-hygiene resources centred on superhero type characters. These will be implemented on paediatric wards, and evaluation of pre and post handwashing practice and understanding of germ transfer will be conducted. The educational intervention will involve children receiving a box containing handwashing products and accompanying health-educational resources. The box will contain anti-bacterial hand wipes, anti-bacterial hand gel and soap all manufactured and provided by the project’s funders PAL International. Alongside the products, specifically developed educational resources including stickers (as part of a reward-system style sticker-chart), a colourful zine (a small booklet that unfolds into a flat poster) containing information about germs in a poster form.\n \nThe research team will consist of a team of academics and a PhD student from De Montfort University (DMU) and NHS Staff. The researchers will complete observations of NHS healthcare staff and children engaging with ‘Germ’s Journey’ health-education resources and products. The researchers will only observe how the children interact with the staff and resources and the children’s handwashing practices. Researchers will not complete any interview/focus groups with the children. \n\nBrief interviews/focus groups/questionnaires with NHS healthcare staff will be conducted regarding their own experiences using the resources with the children on the wards and to evaluate if the resources have supported them in their infection control role and distinguish if there has been a change in children’s handwashing practices. The researchers will also work alongside the NHS and Academics from DMU to obtain Infection rate data from the hospital pre and post the proposed study. The length of the study is approximately two years. The data collected in this study is intended to be used in a research paper(s) and/or PhD thesis.
Summary of Results
The study has been published (open access) in the Frontiers in Public Health Journal and can be accessed here: https://eur03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fclick.pstmrk.it%2F3ts%2Fwww.frontiersin.org%252Fjournals%252Fpublic-health%252Farticles%252F10.3389%252Ffpubh.2024.1427749%252Ffull%2FNBTI%2FGG_4AQ%2FAQ%2F9ca2cf10-dc0a-4719-ac8a-ac91b34a07cb%2F3%2FP1jSrQiVsr&data=05%7C02%7CWales.REC3%40wales.nhs.uk%7Cbd44a653afa046159b5b08dce515e5c0%7Cbb5628b8e3284082a856433c9edc8fae%7C0%7C0%7C638637129423137606%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=9XkZPHzUmr57H%2FcMH%2BQPkb2NLV8H%2FUN%2BTGbnWgqCEhw%3D&reserved=0
Summary of Results:
The Soaper Stars products stimulated a 38% increase in HHC compared to when only hospital-issued products were available, and verbal feedback from families indicated that having the Soaper Star products encouraged improved HHC by all visitors, not just the patient. Workshops in four schools (283 pupils) showed an increase in knowledge around the transmission of infection and the need for good HH that was sustained for at least 4 weeks.
Full results can be seen in the paper (link above).
REC name
Wales REC 3
REC reference
20/WA/0010
Date of REC Opinion
26 Feb 2020
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion