Department of Infectious Diseases, The Alfred Hospital and Central Clinical School, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia.
Department of Nursing Research, Cabrini Institute, Malvern, Australia.
Antimicrob Resist Infect Control. 2022 Jun 2;11(1):77. doi: 10.1186/s13756-022-01116-9.
Hospital infection prevention and control (IPC) staff have played a key role in adapting and implementing jurisdictional COVID-19 policy during the current pandemic. We aimed to describe the experiences of IPC staff in Australian hospitals during the COVID-19 pandemic to inform future pandemic preparedness plans.
A cross-sectional study involving an online survey distributed to IPC practitioners employed in Australian hospitals. Survey content was informed by in-depth interviews, and addressed work conditions, redeployed workforce, personal protective equipment, communication, and guidelines. Participants were recruited through the mailing lists of Australasian College of Infection Prevention and Control and the Australasian Society of Infectious Diseases.
We received fully or partially completed responses from 160 participants, including 38 (24%) and 122 (76%) with nursing and medical backgrounds, respectively. Respondents reported access to sufficient information about PPE (75%, 114/152), PPE was of sufficient quantity (77%, 117/152) and was of sufficient quality (70%, 106/152). Barriers to infection prevention guideline implementation included frequently changing guidelines (57%, 84/148), timing of updates (65%, 96/148) and contradictory sources of information (64%, 95/148). Respondents described a need for better communication channels from government authorities to hospital IPC teams. All respondents described an increase in workload leading to difficulty completing work (63%, 97/154) and feeling burnt out (48%, 74/154).
These data identify avoidable barriers to implementation of COVID-19 infection prevention guidance in Australian hospitals. These findings can inform future national preparedness strategies.
在当前大流行期间，医院感染预防与控制 (IPC) 人员在适应和实施管辖范围内的 COVID-19 政策方面发挥了关键作用。我们旨在描述澳大利亚医院 IPC 人员在 COVID-19 大流行期间的经验，以为未来的大流行防范计划提供信息。
一项涉及澳大利亚医院 IPC 从业者的横断面研究，采用在线调查进行。调查内容由深入访谈提供信息，涉及工作条件、重新部署的劳动力、个人防护设备、沟通和指南。参与者通过澳大利亚感染预防与控制学院和澳大利亚传染病学会的邮件列表招募。
我们收到了 160 名参与者的全部或部分完成的回复，其中包括 38 名（24%）和 122 名（76%）分别具有护理和医学背景的人员。受访者报告说，他们可以获得足够的 PPE 信息（75%，114/152），PPE 的数量充足（77%，117/152），质量也足够（70%，106/152）。感染预防指南实施的障碍包括指南经常更改（57%，84/148）、更新时间（65%，96/148）和信息来源存在矛盾（64%，95/148）。受访者表示需要政府当局向医院 IPC 团队提供更好的沟通渠道。所有受访者都描述了工作量增加导致难以完成工作（63%，97/154）和感到精疲力竭（48%，74/154）。
这些数据确定了澳大利亚医院实施 COVID-19 感染预防指南方面可避免的障碍。这些发现可以为未来的国家准备策略提供信息。
