APIC 2015 Film Festival Winner Points the Way Through a Dirty Day

Stop and think about all the surfaces a pair of hands experiences in a day’s time. Even better, watch Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center’s “Stop the Spread of Infection: It’s in Our Hands.” The video, which chronicles in GoPro® style the travels of hands through a typical day, won first prize at the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology’s (APIC) sixth annual Film Festival. APIC awarded the prize at its 43rd annual conference, held in Charlotte, North Carolina, in June.

“Seeing hand hygiene from a hand’s perspective was a unique take on a topic that is vital to preventing the spread of infection,” said APIC 2016 annual conference chair Debra Johnson, RN, BSN, CIC. “In a given day, we may not think about all of the different—and often unclean—items our hands come in contact with. Wake Forest Baptist’s winning video is a great addition to the Film Festival winner’s circle and is a useful tool to drive home the importance of hand hygiene.”

A panel of expert judges chose the winning video for its creativity, originality, general appeal, and interest to the infection prevention community, as well as for its educational message.

Many of the Film Festival submissions used humor and music to further their statements. Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center parodied Taylor Swift in its “BIDMC’s Flu Fighters Shake It Off,” which highlights aspects of flu prevention. Infection prevention team members at Children’s Hospital Colorado parodied Silento’s “Watch Me” in “Wash Me,” a video designed to educate patients and families on how and why hand hygiene is important. Other submissions struck a more serious note: “Sutton’s Story: Welcomed Into the World With an HAI” is a beautifully produced video that tells the story of newborn Sutton, one of the estimated 722,000 individuals who contract healthcare-associated infections each year.

Links to all nine of the videos nominated for this year’s festival are available at http://ac2016.site.apic.org/special-features/film-festival.