Lafayette Hill Resident Dr. Mary Lou Manning Part of Video Team for Hand Hygiene Campaign

PHILADELPHIA, PA (02/15/2011)(readMedia)-- Dr. Mary Lou Manning, Lafayette Hill resident and Director of the Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) Program at Thomas Jefferson University's Jefferson School of Nursing, assigned a unique class project to students in her online Health Care Quality and Patient Safety course: partner with healthcare facilities, health professions schools and elementary schools to produce a variety of short educational hand hygiene videos. One group's final project is now the centerpiece of an outreach campaign about hand hygiene for children in the Delaware Valley.

DNP students Juanita Kaness, DNP, RN, WHNP-BC, and Anne Markham, RN, MSN, ANP-BC, AOCN, developed Wash Your Hands!, a video for children of all ages. With support from Dr. Manning and Dr. Anthony Frisby, Director of Education Services at Thomas Jefferson University, Kaness and Markham shared their video with the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC), Philadelphia/Delaware Valley Chapter. The timing was perfect, as APIC was developing a community outreach campaign about hand hygiene. APIC immediate past president Christine Young, MBA, MT, CIC and chapter members made the video the centerpiece of the initiative. They provided generous support to produce copies of the DVD and are now distributing the video to elementary schools and day care centers in the region.

Jefferson's DNP program is a 36-credit practice doctorate designed to prepare professional nurses for scholarly practice as clinical and health systems experts who will lead and inspire healthcare improvement and reform. The program can be completed online. Learn more at http://www.jefferson.edu/jchp/nursing/dnp.cfm.