Strategies to improve the implementation of infection control link nurse programmes in acute-care hospitals.

BACKGROUND: Infection control practitioners face several challenges when implementing infection control link nurse (ICLN) programmes. Identification of strategies to address these can improve the impact of current ICLN programmes and guide their future implementation. AIM: We aimed to identify implementation strategies for ICLN programmes in acute-care hospitals with the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research (CFIR)-Expert Recommendations for Implementing Change (ERIC) Implementation Strategy Matching tool. METHODS: An expert panel matched 19 implementation and sustainment barriers, identified in our previous studies, to the most fitting CFIR constructs. Subsequently, we applied the CFIR-ERIC Matching Tool and generated a list of implementation strategies to address these barriers. FINDINGS: Barriers were predominantly found within the CFIR domains 'inner setting' (characteristics of the implementing organization) and 'process' (stages of implementation). With the ERIC Matching Tool, we identified the 10 most important strategies to address barriers of implementation of ICLN programmes: identify and prepare champions, conduct local consensus discussions, assess for readiness and identify barriers and facilitators, inform local opinion leaders, use facilitation, create a learning collaborative, conduct local needs assessments, develop a formal implementation blueprint, build a coalition, and identify early adopters. CONCLUSION: The CFIR domains 'inner setting' and 'process' appeared to be the most important to impede implementation of ICLN programmes in acute-care hospitals. Application of the CFIR-ERIC tool highlighted the identification and preparation of champions as the leading strategy for the successful implementation of these programmes. With this tool, strategies can be specifically tailored towards local implementation and sustainment barriers.

Strict isolation requires a different approach to the family of hospitalised patients with COVID-19: A rapid qualitative study.

BACKGROUND: The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic influenced family-centred care dramatically due to restricting visiting policies. In this new situation, nurses were challenged to develop new approaches to involve family members in patient care. A better understanding of these changes and the experiences of nurses is essential to make an adaptation of procedures, and to secure a family-centred approach in care as much as possible. OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to investigate how family involvement had taken place, and to explore the experiences of nurses with family involvement during the COVID-19 outbreak. In addition, we aimed to formulate recommendations for the involvement of family. METHODS: We conducted a qualitative study using patient record review and focus-group interviews between April and July 2020. We reviewed records of patients with confirmed COVID-19, who were admitted to the COVID-19 wards at two affiliated university hospitals in the Netherlands. All records were searched for notations referring to family involvement. In two focus-groups, nurses who worked at the COVID-19 wards were invited to share their experiences. The Rigorous and Accelerated Data Reduction (RADaR) method was used to collect, reduce and analyse the data. RESULTS: In total, 189 patient records were reviewed and nine nurses participated in the focus-group meetings. Patient records revealed infrequent and often unstructured communication with focus on physical condition. Nurses confirmed that communication with family was far less than before and that the physical condition of the patient was predominant. The involvement of family in care was limited to practicalities, although more involvement was described in end-of-life situations. Nurses experienced moral distress due to the visiting restrictions, though some acknowledged that they had experienced the direct patient care so intense and burdensome, that family contact simply felt too much. CONCLUSION: The communication with and involvement of family in hospital care changed enormously during the COVID-19 outbreak. Based on the identified themes, we formulated recommendations that may be helpful for family-centered care in hospitals during periods of restricted visiting policy.

Feasibility of reusing routinely recorded data to monitor the safe preparation and administration of injectable medication: A multicenter cross-sectional study.

BACKGROUND: Reusing routinely recorded data from electronic hospital records (EHR) may offer a less-time consuming, and more real time alternative for monitoring compliance by nurses with a protocol for the safe preparation and administration of injectable medication. However, at present it is unknown if the data necessary to calculate the quality indicators (QIs) are recorded in EHRs, or if these data are suitable for automated QI calculation. Therefore, the aim of this study was to determine the feasibility of monitoring compliance by nurses with a protocol for the safe injectable medication preparation and administration by reusing routinely recorded EHR data for the automated calculation of QIs. METHODS: A cross-sectional study in 12 Dutch hospitals (October 2015-May 2016). The checks included in the currently prevailing national protocol for the safe preparation and administration of injectable medication were translated into 16 data elements required to calculate the QIs. At each hospital, one interview was conducted using a structured questionnaire to decide whether the data elements were available in EHRs. To present these results, descriptive statistics were used. RESULTS: In total, 20 health-care professionals were interviewed and four different EHR systems were evaluated. The availability of data elements was comparable between the four evaluated EHR systems. Nine of the 16 required data elements were recorded in EHRs, eight in a structured format. The seven missing data elements were mainly related to checks such as 'gather all materials needed' or 'conduct hand hygiene'. Furthermore, changes were identified in the process for the preparation and administration of injectable medication. These changes are mostly related to the increased use of electronic medication administration registration and barcode medication administration systems. CONCLUSIONS: Reusing EHR data to monitor compliance by nurses with the currently prevailing protocol for the safe preparation and administration of injectable medication is not entirely feasible. A decision should be made on which checks should be recorded in the EHRs and which checks should be audited in order to minimize the registration burden for nurses. Moreover, the currently prevailing protocol should be revised to bring it in line with work-as-done. Our results can be used as guidance for such a revision and also for designing new QIs that can be calculated by reusing routinely recorded EHR data.