Embedding infection prevention in everyday patient care
Non-antibiotic approaches to preventing healthcare-associated infection and reducing risks of antimicrobial resistance.
Infection prevention is essential to ensure high standards of patient care and reduce the global threat of antimicrobial resistance.
Health workers face challenges trying to implement infection prevention strategies through lack of time and competing targets imposed ‘top down’ by managers.
We are tackling the issue of sub-optimal compliance with infection prevention strategies and poor implementation in two ways. Our work looks at how to increase compliance with individual infection prevention strategies and the most effective ways of implementing and sustaining whole programs of infection prevention throughout organisations.
Our research has improved compliance with infection prevention strategies
Innovative practice can reduce the incidence of healthcare-associated infections, and improve uptake and sustainability of infection prevention policies and procedures.
Identifying barriers
Accountability for infection prevention is a priority, and managers can embed infection prevention at organisational level. We have identified barriers and enablers to success of infection prevention practice becomes part of health workers’ everyday work.
We have identified that accountability for infection prevention is a key priority across Health boards. This has enabled managers to embed infection prevention at organisational level and we have identified barriers and enablers to success.
Recent funding from the European Union will establish how accountability for infection prevention practice can be disseminated throughout organisations and become part of health workers’ everyday work.