scholarly journals The Impact of Requiring Completion of an Online Infection Control Course on Health Professionals’ Intentions to Comply with Infection Control Guidelines: A Comparative Study

2009 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 15-19 ◽  
Author(s):  
Annalee Yassi ◽  
Elizabeth A Bryce ◽  
Deirdre Maultsaid ◽  
Helen Novak Lauscher ◽  
Kun Zhao

BACKGROUND: Ensuring good infection control practice in health care facilities is a constant concern, yet evidence shows that the compliance of health care professionals with proper procedures is lacking, despite the existence of guidelines and training programs. An online infection control module was developed to provide ready access to training. Controversy exists about whether successfully completing such a course should be mandatory or strongly encouraged for all health care professionals. The objective of the present study was to compare the perception of safety culture and intention to comply with infection control guidelines in professionals who were required by their supervisors to take the course, and those who did so voluntarily.METHODS: Survey responses on learning environment, safety climate and intention to comply with infection control guidelines in health care professionals who were required to take the course (supervisor-required group [n=143]) and those who took the same course voluntarily (voluntary group [n=105]) were compared. Because randomization was thought to be too difficult to implement in the policy context in which the study was conducted, significant differences between the two groups were taken into account in the analysis.RESULTS: Those required to take the course had a significantly better perception of the institutional safety climate (P<0.001), and had a higher reported intention to comply with infection control guidelines (P=0.040) than those who took the course voluntarily.DISCUSSION: Requiring that staff complete a 30 min interactive online infection control module increased their intention to comply with infection control guidelines compared with those who voluntarily accessed this material based on promotional material. Consideration should be given to making the successful completion of an online infection control module a requirement for all health care professionals.

2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
pp. 237-247
Author(s):  
Matthew Sydney Long

Purpose This paper aims to contribute to the debate about the closure of institutional mental health-care facilities, from an experiential perspective of a former mental health inpatient, ongoing service user and campaigner for retention of such facilities. It argues that auto-ethnographic accounts of mental illness by those with multiple social identities can have a greater role in terms of future training of mental health-care professionals. Design/methodology/approach The paper offers an experiential account of the impact of mental health facility bed closures as a patient admitted to institutional mental health facilities; as a mental health campaigner, fighting for the provision of both places of safety and “safe space” within his own local community; and as an ongoing service user. The research is in the interpretivist tradition of social science in taking an auto-ethnographical methodological stance. Findings This paper is underpinned by two key theoretical notions. Firstly, Stuart Hall’s concept of the Familiar Stranger (2017) is used to explore the tensions of self-identity as the author SHIFTS uncomfortably between his three-fold statuses. Secondly, the notion of “ontological insecurity” offered by Giddens (1991) is used with the paper exploring the paradox that admission to a mental health facility so-called “place of safety” is in fact itself a disorientating experience for both patient and carer(s). Research limitations/implications No positivistic claims to reliability, representativeness or generalisability can be made. It is the authenticity of the account which the reader feels should be afforded primacy in terms of its original contribution to knowledge. Practical implications This paper should have practical use for those tasked with developing educational and training curriculums for professionals across the mental health-care sector. Social implications This paper implicitly assesses the political wisdom of the policy of mental health bed closures within the wider context of the deinstitutionalisation movement. Originality/value This paper is underpinned by original experiential accounts from the author as patient, campaigner for places of safety and onging service-user of mental health care provision.


2020 ◽  
pp. 119-132

INTRODUCTION. The guidelines issued by the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2009 regarding hand hygiene (HH) in health care provided health care professionals with scientific evidence that argued that HH principles should be respected when dealing with patients. Despite the passage of years and strenuous attempts to introduce these recommendations to the Polish health care facilities for the prevention of healthcare-associated infections (HAI), these principles are still not being implemented in an optimal way for the patient’s safety. OBJECTIVE OF WORK. The aim was to examine the views and attitudes of physicians (L) and nurses (P) towards the WHO rules of hand hygiene. MATERIAL AND METHODS. The study was performed by means of a diagnostic survey using a questionnaire of our own design; random sampling was used. The study involved 231 LP: 173 (74.9%) women, 58 (25.1%) men, including 93 (40.3%) doctors and 138 (59.7%) nurses. The study was conducted in a multiprofile hospital in Małopolska in 2017. The difference between what the respondents think (their views) and what they do in reality (what attitudes they display) was examined in relation to WHO principles, such as wearing natural short nails and jewelry on their hands. RESULTS. Negative practice of observing these HH principles in relation to views was detected (R = -0.014, p<0.05, R2 = 0.016). Respondents supported the view that the ring could affect HAI and rarely used it in practice, the practice was positive (R = 0.298, p <0.001, R2 = 0.085). Women strongly emphasized the view that wearing long nails has an impact on HAI spread, but in practice they often declared keeping long nails, practice was negative (R = -0.241, p <0.01, R2 = 0.054). In response to the question about the impact of nail painting on the spread of HAI, this view was poorly represented, in practice some of them wore painted nails, the practice was negative (R = -0.226, p <0.01, R2 = 0.045). CONCLUSION. Despite high support for the principles of hand hygiene, in practice, these principles were not always respected, the impact on the practice was negative in areas such as: general adherence to the HH principles, wearing long and painted nails. The compatibility of views with practice was detected in relation to wearing a wedding ring.


2009 ◽  
Vol 137 (10) ◽  
pp. 1465-1471 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. GOPAL RAO ◽  
A. JEANES ◽  
H. RUSSELL ◽  
D. WILSON ◽  
E. ATERE-ROBERTS ◽  
...  

SUMMARYIn this prospective cluster randomized controlled trial we evaluated the impact of short-term provision of enhanced infection control support on infection control practice in nursing homes in South London. Twelve nursing homes were recruited, six each in intervention (300 residents) and control (265 residents) groups. Baseline observations of hand hygiene facilities, environmental cleanliness and safe disposal of clinical waste showed poor compliance in both groups. Post-intervention observations showed improvement in both groups. There was no statistical difference between the two groups in the compliance for hand hygiene facilities (P=0·69); environmental cleanliness (P=0·43) and safe disposal of clinical waste (P=0·96). In both groups, greatest improvement was in compliance with safe disposal of clinical waste and the least improvement was in hand hygiene facilities. Since infection control practice improved in intervention and control groups, we could not demonstrate that provision of short-term, enhanced, infection control support in nursing homes had a significant impact in infection control practice.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Reinhard Strametz ◽  
Miriam Abloescher ◽  
Wolfgang Huf ◽  
Brigitte Ettl ◽  
Matthias Raspe

Abstract Background Second victims, defined as health care team members being traumatized by an unanticipated clinical event or outcome, are supposed to be a common phenomenon in health care. Surveys in the US health care system indicate high incidence rates among physicians between 10 and 44%. However, no systematic assessment of second victims in health care in German speaking countries has been published yet and no validated German questionnaire for assessing incidence of and impact on second victims exists. Therefore, we initiated the SeViD (Second Victims im Deutschsprachigen Raum/second victims in German speaking countries) project and developed a German questionnaire for the assessment of second victim incidents. Methods Based on an intensive literature review of available questionnaires in English we defined a preliminary version of our questionnaire consisting of 4 domains and 14 items. This version was subject to cognitive pretesting using paraphrasing, probing and think aloud methods in order to ensure content validity. Retest reliability of second victim symptoms was assessed three weeks after the initial pretest. Results Fifteen health care professionals (physicians, nurses, therapeutic and diagnostic professions and administrative staff) of hospitals in Germany (n=6) and Austria (n=9) with or without previous second victim experience participated as volunteers for all pretests after informed consent. Seven items in three domains were slightly modified based on cognitive pretests. Retest reliability for second victim symptoms was rho = 0.76. Mean duration of completion for this questionnaire took 9:01 (±3:05) minutes in case of a previous second victim experience and otherwise 4:19 (±0:59) minutes and was regarded acceptable by all volunteers. No volunteer regarded any question to be inappropriate. Conclusion We successfully developed a validated questionnaire assessing the impact of the second victim phenomenon in inpatient health care facilities. This questionnaire will be used in different settings for health care professionals and for stand-alone baseline assessment as well as pre/post-survey along with complex educational interventions to reduce negative impacts of the second victim phenomenon.


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