In infection prevention initiatives, which approach involves identifying and empowering influential staff to advocate for changes?

• A. Clinical champions
• B. Top-down enforcement
• C. External audits
• D. Budget reviews

Answer: (A)

Using clinical champions centers on leveraging respected frontline staff to drive change. These influential individuals understand the realities of daily workflow and can speak in peers’ language, modeling the desired practices and reinforcing them through ongoing education and support. By identifying and empowering them to advocate for infection prevention changes, you gain credibility at the unit level, promote buy-in, and address barriers as they arise, which helps new practices take root and be sustained beyond initial rollout.

This approach is more effective than relying on top-down enforcement, which can provoke resistance; external audits, which assess rather than drive change; or budget reviews, which focus on finances rather than behavior and practice change.