Journal article
Environmental service workers as potential designers of infection control policy in long-term care settings
American journal of infection control, Vol.48(4), pp.398-402
04/2020
DOI: 10.1016/j.ajic.2020.01.014
PMID: 32087975
Abstract
•Designing infection prevention policies in long-term care is logistically complex.•Use of private and public space impact how staff engage in infection control.•Environmental service workers contribute unique perspectives on infection control.
Long-term care facility residents are at higher risk of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus infection and colonization than the general population. In 2009, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) implemented the “methicillin-resistant S. aureus prevention initiative” in long-term care facilities (ie, Community Living Centers or “CLCs”).
Over 4 months, 40 semistructured interviews were conducted with staff in medicine, nursing, and environmental services at 5 geographically dispersed CLCs. Interviews addressed knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs concerning infection prevention and resident-centered care. A modified constant comparative approach was used for data analysis.
In CLCs, staff work to prevent and control infections in spaces where residents live. Nurses and Environmental Service Workers daily balance infection prevention conventions with the CLC setting. Infection control team members, who are accustomed to working in acute care settings, struggle to reconcile the CLC context with infection prevention.
The focus on the resident's room as the locus of care, and thus the main target of infection control, misses opportunities for addressing infection prevention in the spaces beyond the residents’ rooms.
Environmental Service Workers’ daily work inside the rooms and within the wider facility produces a unique perspective that might help in the design of workable infection control policies in CLCs.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Environmental service workers as potential designers of infection control policy in long-term care settings
- Creators
- Jennifer M. Van Tiem - Iowa City VA Health Care SystemJulia E. Friberg - Iowa City VA Health Care SystemCassie Cunningham Goedken - Iowa City VA Health Care SystemLisa Pineles - University of Maryland, BaltimoreHeather Schacht Reisinger - Iowa City VA Health Care SystemDaniel J. Morgan - University of Maryland, BaltimoreSamantha L. Solimeo - United States Department of Veterans Affairs
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- American journal of infection control, Vol.48(4), pp.398-402
- Publisher
- Elsevier Inc
- DOI
- 10.1016/j.ajic.2020.01.014
- PMID
- 32087975
- ISSN
- 0196-6553
- eISSN
- 1527-3296
- Grant note
- CADRE (https://doi.org/10.13039/501100006574) CDA 13-272 to SLS / Department of Veterans Affairs Health Services Research & Delivery Service Career Development Award CIN 13-412 / Department of Veterans Affairs (https://doi.org/10.13039/100000738) CRE 12-307 / Department of Veterans Affairs Health Services Research & Delivery Service
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 04/2020
- Academic Unit
- Center for Social Science Innovation; General Internal Medicine; Internal Medicine
- Record Identifier
- 9984359940102771
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