Annotated Bibliography

NURSING RESEARCH 5

Nursing Research

ST. Thomas University

Erol Amisial

NUR 416 AP 3

Professor Heather Brathwaite

September 19, 2021

Infections within the healthcare sector cause considerable indisposition and mortality in patients and cause a substantial financial burden in healthcare organizations. Although there have been efforts to apply universal precautions, there is still low compliance with the simple infection control measures. Consequently, among the effective strategies to enhance compliance is involving dedicated nurses to inputs in infection prevention and control. It is worthwhile to invest time and effort in infection control link nurses due to their benefits. The benefits include improving practice, linking their clinical areas and the infection control team, and raising awareness about prevention and control (Dik, et al., 2016).

Healthcare organizations worldwide have implemented the strategy of involving link nurses in infection prevention and control. There is not much about the usage ad advantage of using link nurses in infection control despite the move. Therefore, the research study aimed to discover the concepts related to infection control link nurses and their programs (Dekker, et al., 2019). The study also targeted the evaluation of the efficacy of these programs and identifying the existing gaps in the evidence base.

Consequently, the stud searched CINAHL, PubMed, Google Scholar, and Google to get insights on infection control link nurses in acute care hospitals. The study encompassed twenty-nine publications and identified three main concepts, including profile, strategies supporting, and the implementation of infection control link nurses. The research included papers, reports, abstracts, and guidelines based on opinions. The systematic review searched only in medical databases and focused on studies within various databases and grey features. Among the research questions governing the research is: What are the effects of infection control link nurses' programs on infection awareness control, patient outcomes, and guidance adherence? The study then focused on identifying gaps in the infection control link nurses' evidence base networks and research opportunities.

References

Dekker, M., Jongerden, I. P., van Mansfeld, R., Ket, J. C., van der Werff, S. D., Vandenbroucke-Grauls, C. M., & de Bruijne, M. C. (2019). Infection control link nurses in acute care hospitals: A scoping review. Antimicrobial Resistance & Infection Control, 8(1), 1-13.

Dik, J. W. H., Poelman, R., Friedrich, A. W., Panday, P. N., Lo-Ten-Foe, J. R., Assen, S. V., ... & Sinha, B. (2016). An integrated stewardship model: Antimicrobial, infection prevention and diagnostic (AID). Future Microbiology, 11(1), 93-102.