Experiences of compliance with standard precautions during emergencies: A qualitative study of nurses working in intensive care units
Section snippets
Background
Hospital-acquired infections (HAIs) represent a major public health problem that can involve both patients and healthcare workers while in a hospital or other healthcare facility (Kärki, Plachouras, Cassini, & Suetens, 2019; World Health Organization [WHO], 2011). Regarding patients, HAIs are defined as an infection that was not present or incubating at the time of admission (WHO, 2011). Regarding healthcare workers, HAIs include occupational infections contracted during clinical practice (WHO,
Research design
This paper's design was a descriptive qualitative study that used content analysis to describe nurses' experiences of being compliant with SPs during an emergency. We conducted 4 focus groups (FGs) to collect qualitative data (Krueger & Casey, 2014). Krueger and Casey (2014) have defined FGs as a “carefully planned series of discussions designed to obtain perceptions on a defined area of interest in a permissive, non-threatening environment.”
Since the phenomenon under study addressed nurses'
Findings
The content analysis process led to the identification of three themes that describe the nurses' experiences of being compliant with SPs during an emergency. The three themes addressed are conflict, competencies, and context.
Discussion
This study aimed to explore ICU nurses' experiences of compliance with SPs during emergencies. One finding that emerged from this study was the nurses' conflict between the need to save the patient's life and the need for self-protection through the use of SPs. Participants reported being partially compliant with SPs and using only gloves when the patient's life was at risk. The reason behind this conflict could be related to the prosocial nature of the discipline of nursing (Biagioli, Prandi,
Limitations
The first limitation of this study was that participants were recruited from a single ICU in a university hospital where many courses about SPs were offered to staff, PPE was largely available, and organizational support was provided. Therefore, even if some participants have reported experiences from the ICU of other hospitals, they may not be a good representation of the largest nursing population. A second limitation was the interactive and collective nature of FGs, which could have limited
Conclusion
To the extent of our knowledge, this study is the first to provide an in-depth and thorough understanding of the factors that can influence intensive care nurses' compliance with SPs during an emergency. HAIs in the ICU can have significant consequences for both patients' outcomes and nurses' occupational safety. However, it is important to remember that HAIs are preventable, even during an emergency. For this reason, ICU nurses should be aware of preventable risks to themselves and their
Funding
This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.
Source of funding
This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sector.
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
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