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cover story
Compliance Conundrums:
Finding Better Solutions to Persistent IP & C Challenges
By Kelly M. Pyrek
T he best guidelines and evidence-based recommendations are only as good as the degree to which they are implemented. That’ s the perennial struggle in infection prevention and control( IP & C), and infection preventionists are faced with a myriad of factors influencing healthcare personnel( HCP) behavior – as well as their own in response.
In their review, Alhumaid, et al.( 2021) examined healthcare personnel’ s knowledge of IP & C and highlighted potential factors that may influence compliance with IP & C precautions. Overall, the researchers report that the level of HCP knowledge of IP & C appears to be adequate, good, and / or high concerning standard precautions, hand hygiene, and care pertaining to urinary catheters. Acceptable levels of knowledge were also detected regarding IPC measures for specific diseases including TB, MRSA, MERS-CoV, COVID-19 and Ebola. However, gaps were identified in HCP’ s knowledge concerning occupational vaccinations, the modes of transmission of infectious diseases, and the risk of infection from needlesticks and other sharps injuries.
Conversely, according to data from a large survey of APIC members, the majority of IPs self-assessed their competency as proficient compared with novice or expert for each of the eight IP core competency activities( Kalp, et al., 2017). Forty percent of IPs self-rated their competency as expert in the Preventing / Controlling the Transmission of Infectious Agents / HAIs component. IPs reported novice competency in Employee / Occupational Health( 29 percent); Cleaning, Sterilization, Disinfection, and Asepsis( 23 %); and Education and Research categories( 22 percent). Differences in self-rated competency among IPs by discipline type( public health, nurse, and laboratory) were identified.
Further, Kalp, et al.( 2017) reported that the competency activity with the highest expert self-rating among all survey respondents was Preventing / Controlling the Transmission of Infectious Agents / HAIs( 39.7 percent). The competency activity categories known as Surveillance