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MEASURING EVIDENCE BASED-PRACTICE 1

MEASURING EVIDENCE BASED-PRACTICE 2

Infections that are acquired during the delivery of health care are a significant public health problem globally. It has been estimated that more than 5% of people who are admitted to acute care hospitals in developed countries acquire one or more infections from the facilities. In developing countries, the risk may even be more than 25%. Healthcare-associated infection amplifies the economic costs of healthcare. In evaluating effective infection prevention and control measures in healthcare settings, various tools are very reliable in measuring change for hospital-acquired infections in acute care settings such as Point prevalence surveys and questionnaires.

Questionnaire

Awareness, Training, and compliance of healthcare workers are practical implementations of prevention and controlling infections in healthcare facilities, especially in acute settings. Therefore, it is vital to lay effective control and prevention measures, and organization workers at all levels should be involved. How the workers are involved can be measured using a questionnaire to help in assessing some of the effective ways that are used in the care settings helping reduce the risk of infections in the care settings.

For instance, in Saudi Arabia, there was a "questionnaire-based analysis of infection prevention and control in the healthcare facilities regarding respiratory syndrome" (Rabaan et al., 2017). The healthcare team an electronic surveillance system to fill in a questionnaire through various platforms such as emails, among other tools of communication. The respondents were required to tell if there was a control program of infection in their institutions. If there were control guidelines and policies in the unit, they were working. Suppose there was Training regarding infection and how to control the team, among other questions. Chi-square analysis was then used to compare the results to assess variability.

The responses helped show the various methods that have been applied in various institutions and if they have shown any effectiveness in reducing the risks of infections in care settings. For instance, in this case, the laxity of staff in following laid control policies, rules, and guidelines has been observed (Rabaan et al., 2017). This could explain the reason for the rise in infections. Getting insights into compliance in terms of hygiene practices can show the effectiveness of these practices in care settings.

Point prevalence surveys

Having an effective control and prevention strategies will require having reliable data that describes the epidemiology of hospital-acquired infections. In this case, the point prevalence survey plays a significant role in providing meaningful data that can help in investigating the potential trends of infections and isolate pathogens and antimicrobial uses. Different countries have used point prevalence surveys to assess and evaluate the impact of hospital-acquired infections as well as the various ways of preventing infections.

According to a point prevalence survey conducted by Usman, (2020), a survey was carried out in 3 acute care hospitals dividing the wards in every specialty into female or male wards. The risk factors for hospital-acquired infections were determined using bivariate and multivariate regression analysis. The information was then collected regarding the age of the patients, their gender, their dates of admission, and survey surgery. They have admitted if the patient had any invasive device, and the presence of hospital-acquired infection and the results of the microbiological investigation. This data was collected through medical and nursing records review of the surveyed patients, and the hospital-acquired infections were discussed with the physician and nurse attending to the patients. The data was then entered into double-checked for coding errors, cleansed and analyzed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS). The study showed that the point prevalence of hospital-acquired infections was 14.3% (Usman, 2020). The leading infections were bloodstream and surgical site infections that accounted for two-thirds of all the infections. Therefore, the survey is one of the essential tools that can be used in measuring the prevalence of HAI and the various ways that the hospitals are trying to handle them. Therefore, compliance with set standards practices of infection control is deficient.

Semi-structured interviews

According to the article "Qualitative study of views and experiences of performance management for healthcare-associated infections," this study involved two sources where the first involved conducting interviews with staff (Brewster et al., 2016). The interviews were recorded. The second source involved studying the efforts of preventing central line infections in England, where 19 ICUs were involved where 98 individuals were interviewed. Performance management was seen to have a positive impact on how it raised infection prevention and control priority, coming up with formal structures and accountability lines and making infection prevention a shared responsibility. Healthcare-associated infections such as pneumonia have been increasingly understood as a problem that requires the co-operation and support from everybody. The participants also believed that surveillance data has value in the motivation of frontline improvement.

References

Brewster, L., Tarrant, C., & Dixon-Woods, M. (2016). A qualitative study of views and

experiences of performance management for healthcare-associated infections. Journal of Hospital Infection, 94(1), 41–47. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhin.2016.01.021

Rabaan, A. A., Alhani, H. M., Bazzi, A. M., & Al-Ahmed, S. H. (2017). Questionnaire-based

analysis of infection prevention and control in healthcare facilities in Saudi Arabia regarding Middle East Respiratory Syndrome. Journal of Infection and Public Health, 10(5), 548–563. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jiph.2016.11.008

Usman, A. (2020). Point-prevalence survey of hospital-acquired infections in three acute care

hospitals in Northern Nigeria. Antimicrobial Resistance and Infection Control, 9(1), 1–7. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13756-020-00722-9