• Infection Control Week - Introduction
• Planning your week
• Challenges
  • Poster contest
  • Slogan contest
  • Quiz/word search puzzle
• Test your handwashing skills
• Exhibitions
• Demonstrations
• Important Citations
  • Policy and Guidance
  • Healthcare Environment and cleanliness
  • Pandemic Flu
  • Practice based audit
    • Saving lives
    • Essential steps
    • ICNA audit tool
    • Essence of care
  • Hand Hygiene
  • Evidence based standards - EPIC
  • Working party reports/ACDP/SEAC
  • Community and Home Hygiene
  • Posters
  • Leaflets
  • Decontamination
  • Surveillance
  • Occupational Health
  • Systematic Reviews
  • Scotland/Ireland/Wales
  • International Guidelines
  • Useful Links

Encourage staff, patients and especially the children on the paediatric ward to enter a poster competition with a theme such as 'Handwashing', 'My Favourite Nurse or Doctor', or 'Cleaning the Ward' This will help brighten up your Infection Control Week Displays.

• Display posters in prominent areas
• Have a panel to judge
• Display winning entries in a main area and publish winner’s names in your trust newsletter or newspaper
• Have an award ceremony
• Set poster competition two weeks before, if possible, then use posters to attract attention, on the day

If you can hold this contest before the event so much the better but if you are running out of time use the winning slogan to launch next years event.

• Hold the contest before the event
• The winning slogan could become the major theme
• Use infection control slogans to encourage participation in quizzes and pictures to attract attention

To test staff infection control knowledge produce a quiz to use during the week either on your displays or in your trust newsletter. (Don't forget to agree answers amongst the infection control team first to save any confusion).

• Have questions relating to practices, policies and procedures completed by individuals who stop at your display, and award small prizes to those who answer all the questions correctly. Fruit or fruit drinks are healthy options. This is a good way to check the level of knowledge and pinpoint areas where work is needed for your infection prevention and control programme next year. Or leave cards in coffee rooms and lounges.
• Colouring contest for children’s ward - design and photocopy a picture for children to colour; display pictures and have them judged; award prizes to winner and participants.
• Puzzles & Word Games - put an Infection Control puzzle or word game in your trust newsletter to solve for a prize.
• Prizes: Great giveaways are hand creams, hand sanitizers, pens, etc.

In order to help you organise your quiz and word search, we provide the following documents (MS Word). Use these as they are or as templates for further ideas:

• Infection Control Quiz and Answers
• Infection Control Word Search Puzzle

To highlight the importance of handwashing as the single most important element in preventing cross infection set up handwash stations and persuade staff patients and visitors to try out handwashing after using glo germ cremes or powders. This will help highlight areas they have missed.

• Encourage staff and visitors to check how well they have washed their hands using specialist powders and solutions, and use ‘glow box’ to see where they have missed.
• Handwashing cards
  • Have staff carry handwashing cards to mark each time they wash their hands during a shift.
  • Put cards in a box for a draw.
  • This raises awareness of how many times hands should be washed in a day.