Introducing… a hand hygiene coordinator
Beata Mostowiak is the hand hygiene coordinator in Hamilton Health Sciences’ (HHS) infection prevention and control program. She has been with HHS for close to three years.
Before working in this role, Beata volunteered as a hand hygiene auditor. This introduced her to the importance of hand hygiene as it relates to patient safety.
What do you do?
I work with staff across HHS to review whether we follow our hand hygiene standards.
I prepare reports for leaders that outline key indicators so they can address them at their team huddles as they talk about new improvement opportunities. I’ll sometimes attend those huddles to discuss opportunities and their strategies to improve hand hygiene.
Working with members of our infection prevention and control team, we create educational material that supports our staff and patients. I also oversee students, volunteers and staff who help audit our sites.
It’s rewarding to know I can influence our patient safety standards.
What do you love most about your job?
What I love most about my role is each day brings a new challenge or experience.
Working at all HHS sites allows me to connect with staff from various programs and patients from a variety of backgrounds. It’s rewarding to know I can influence our patient safety standards.
What made you enter your field of work?
I had an interest in patient safety while completing my undergraduate degree in public health. This led me to take a course in infection prevention and control course, which ignited my passion to prevent patients from getting healthcare-associated infections.
As auditors, we take pride in being a helpful resource for staff.
What’s one thing people would be surprised to learn about your role?
I think my role can be misunderstood. The auditing process is not punitive, but rather it’s to collect data that identifies areas for improvement. It’s not meant to be covert or for disciplinary purposes.
As auditors, we take pride in being a helpful resource for staff.
I’m also more than just an auditor. I connect with our staff and physicians to identify barriers and create unit-specific strategies to improve the way we clean our hands.
Is there a staff member, physician or volunteer you want to recognize for their outstanding work? Send an email to share@hhsc.ca with their name, role, site, department and why they should be recognized. We may feature them in our weekly series.