Department of Pediatrics (Drs Weser, Murray, Truesdell, Marks, Martinello, and Hieftje), Department of Internal Medicine (Dr Martinello), Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut; Yale School of Nursing (Ms Crocker), New Haven, Connecticut; Yale New Haven Children's Hospital (Dr Murray and Ms Ciaburri), New Haven, Connecticut; Department of Infection Prevention (Drs Murray and Martinello), Yale New Haven Health, New Haven, Connecticut; Department of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology (Mr Wright), Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut.
Adv Neonatal Care. 2024 Oct 1;24(5):475-484. doi: 10.1097/ANC.0000000000001195. Epub 2024 Aug 27.
Infection prevention (IP) behaviors such as hand hygiene (HH) and mobile device disinfection are important to reduce the risk of infection transmission from both family members and hospital staff to critically ill neonates.
To inform the design of educational interventions to improve both patient family and staff IP behaviors, we engaged separate groups of nurses and family members to understand perceptions about the spread of infection and barriers to implementing effective IP strategies.
This was a qualitative study using focus groups to gather data from neonatal nurses and patient family members. Data were triangulated with hospital-wide survey data and analyzed using inductive content analysis.
Twelve nurses and 4 patient family members participated. Themes related to communication about IP between staff and family members emerged: stakeholders expressed discomfort with the timing and nature of just-in-time HH education. These communication challenges contributed to stress levels within the neonatal intensive care unit. This finding was reflected in the hospital-wide survey.
Steps should be taken to improve communication about IP behaviors between patient family members and frontline staff. Reducing nurse burden of providing just-in-time HH reminders to patient family members through increased IP education may decrease stress and facilitate IP behaviors. This has the potential to decrease infection spread and improve patient outcomes. The development of interventions targeting stakeholder communication is therefore warranted, but additional research is needed to understand the timing and process for delivery of the educational material.
感染预防（IP）行为，如手卫生（HH）和移动设备消毒，对于降低家庭成员和医院工作人员将感染传播给重症新生儿的风险非常重要。
为了设计教育干预措施，以提高患者家属和医护人员的感染预防行为，我们分别让护士和患者家属参与，以了解他们对感染传播的看法以及实施有效感染预防策略的障碍。
这是一项使用焦点小组的定性研究，从新生儿护士和患者家属那里收集数据。数据与全院调查数据进行三角验证，并使用归纳内容分析进行分析。
12 名护士和 4 名患者家属参与了研究。研究结果表明，在医护人员和患者家属之间关于感染预防的沟通方面存在一些问题，利益相关者对及时进行手卫生教育的时间和性质表示不适。这些沟通挑战导致新生儿重症监护病房的压力水平升高。这一发现反映在全院调查中。
应采取措施改善患者家属和一线工作人员之间关于感染预防行为的沟通。通过增加感染预防教育，减少护士向患者家属提供即时手卫生提醒的负担，可能会减轻压力并促进感染预防行为。这有潜力减少感染传播并改善患者的预后。因此，有必要针对利益相关者沟通制定干预措施，但需要进一步研究以了解教育材料的传递时间和过程。
