Nurses' infection prevention behaviors in healthcare settings: a qualitative analysis

Healthcare Associated Infections: Critical Analysis

The prevention and control of healthcare associated infections is an issue that has attracted considerable attention across the globe given the increase of healthcare associated infections. Despite the development and use of several strategies and measures to lessen the burdens caused by healthcare associated infections, the practices of healthcare professionals are largely suboptimal while the infections persist. As a result, the prevention and control of these infections has attracted considerable concern, which has resulted in several studies on the practices and behaviors of healthcare practitioners. Carole Jackson, Karen Lowton and Peter Griffiths have conducted a research on nurses' prevention behaviors to control healthcare associated infections. The qualitative study utilizes vignettes created from nurses' reports of infection prevention behaviors and practices.

Problem Statement

Healthcare associated infections can be described as infections that emerge from medical interventions like clinical or surgical processes or from contact with a healthcare environment and setting ("Prevention and Control of Healthcare-Associated Infections," 2011). Since they cover a broad series of infections, healthcare associated infections have emerged as significant health concerns because they pose a severe risk to staff, patients, and visitors. The risk of these infections is attributed to the significant morbidity they cause to the infected and contribute to increased healthcare costs. Therefore, the prevention and control of these infections is a major issue and priority for healthcare stakeholders.

While the various stakeholders acknowledge the need for preventing and controlling these infections, the strategies and initiatives adopted by healthcare professionals and practitioners have largely been suboptimal. Numerous studies that have been conducted on the issue have been centered on forecasting infection prevention behaviors and issues linked to compliance with guidelines. However, there is lack of researches that are geared towards understanding and explaining daily infection behaviors of these practitioners despite the valuable insight from the numerous studies. The lack of such information and studies is the gap in knowledge, which is the research problem examined in this study. The author has established the significance of the study through stating the impact of these infections on the patients, hospital staff, and visitors as well as on the overall healthcare costs. Moreover, the authors recognize that the root cause of unsuitable behavior and non-compliance has not been evaluated. The reader should care about this research on the premise that it provides valuable information regarding nurses' infection prevention behaviors with regards to seeming ineffectiveness of the various strategies.

Will improvement of nurses' behaviors enhance infection prevention?

The purpose and research questions are related to the research problem since they seek to provide valuable insights on the link between preventing/controlling healthcare associated infections and nurses' infection behaviors. The qualitative methods used were suitable to answer the research questions since the authors wanted to evaluate data and develop a strong, insightful picture of the phenomenon being described.

Literature Review

The interpretative approach of the study required the analysis of existing literature and studies in order to develop an insightful picture of the phenomenon being described. As a result, the authors cited relevant quantitative and qualitative studies to the research issue. The authors also included statistics from reports and surveys from relevant stakeholders as well as books that focus on analyzing the issue. With regards to whether the references were current, the researchers included a considerable number of studies that older than the 5-year limit that is usually used for quantitative studies. The inclusion of these older references was attributed to the fact that they contained information and statistics that were relevant to the qualitative study on nurses' infection prevention behaviors towards preventing/controlling healthcare associated infections. The use of various studies, reports, and books provided adequate information that was used to develop a logical argument. The sufficiency of the literature is evident in their significance in the data analysis processes and provision of information relating to the definition of these infections as well as strategies and initiatives for preventing and controlling them.

Following the evaluation of data and the development of an insightful picture on the phenomenon, the authors indicate weaknesses or limitations of the available studies. In this case, the researchers state that available studies primarily focus on forecasting infection prevention behaviors and issues linked to guideline compliance. Therefore, the available studies do not provide valuable insight regarding effecting behavior change among key actors to enhance the prevention and control of these infections.

Conceptual/Theoretical Framework

Qualitative researchers tend to provide interpretation of observed or evaluated phenomena by working closely with research participants in their natural surroundings ("Qualitative Research Perspective," n.d.). This process usually entails involved the use of various perspectives to help make sense of the phenomena. In this case the researchers used data analysis perspective through which categories emerge from data. The use of this perspective in the study was influenced by the need to evaluate the role of nurses' infection prevention behaviors on the overall healthcare associated infections prevention strategies. This perspective was based on the use of grounded theory method of qualitative inquiry. However, the researchers did not develop a framework or diagram from the study findings.

In conclusion, healthcare associated infections have become a major issue in the health sector because of their impact on individuals and the overall healthcare costs. The impact of the infections has contributed to the development of several measures to prevent and control them though these initiatives have been largely suboptimal. This has in turn resulted in numerous studies to examine the prevention and control of healthcare associated infections. Jackson, Lowton & Griffiths have contributed to existing literature on the issue by examining nurses' infection prevention behaviors in light of the efficacy of current policies and measures.