A comprehensive educational approach to improving patient isolation practice.

Objective: To describe a workable plan for the successful education of a large, diverse group of healthcare workers in a university hospital setting.

Design: A prospective, nonrandomized study of compliance with infection control isolation practice following various educational interventions.

Setting: 300-bed tertiary-care, academic medical center with out-patient clinics.

Participants: Hospital employees and contract workers.

Interventions: The infection control department introduced a plan to implement the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's new isolation guidelines. A comprehensive proposal was presented to administration. It included a time line for institution and a comprehensive educational and performance-improvement plan, including standard lectures and a video that explained Standard and Transmission-Based Precautions. Follow-up consisted of customized in-services and one-on-one continued education tailored to the individual units.

Results: Compliance with isolation procedure after standardized lectures and video alone was poor. Compliance improved after institution of smaller, more intensive in-services tailored to individual departments and given during all shifts.

Conclusions: Intensive, individualized education is the key to compliance. This requires sufficient infection control staffing and administrative support.