An evaluation of an infection prevention link nurse programme in community hospitals and development of an implementation model

Abstract

Infection Prevention Background Infection prevention is a global priority, linked to patient safety, the "cornerstone" of healthcare (National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence, 2012), therefore understanding what works to promote best practice is crucial. Interventions such as education, audit, guidance and feedback have traditionally been used (Storr et al., 2013), often

Role perception of infection control link nurses; a multi-centre qualitative study

“…Our findings on ICLN' needs for support from various stakeholders builds on the work of Williams and colleagues, who found that ICLN should have access to formal and informal support mechanisms (Williams et al, 2019). The appropriate operationalization of this support is needed to facilitate ICLN to undertake the role (Bunce et al, 2020;Williams et al, 2019).…”

“…Our findings on ICLN' needs for support from various stakeholders builds on the work of Williams and colleagues, who found that ICLN should have access to formal and informal support mechanisms (Williams et al, 2019). The appropriate operationalization of this support is needed to facilitate ICLN to undertake the role (Bunce et al, 2020;Williams et al, 2019). Therefore, the roles and responsibilities of the ICLN, the team manager, buddies and the infection control practitioner must be defined and balanced at the ward level, with respect to the local culture and power dynamics.…”

“…Little is known about the way link nurses themselves perceive their role; how they fulfil it, how they increase and disseminate their knowledge, what difficulties they encounter, and what supports them in advocating infection prevention in clinical practice. The few studies that have assessed the ICLN perspective, focused on the ICLN profile with accompanying roles and tasks and on educational strategies (Cooper, 2005; Teare et al, 2001; Williams et al, 2019). In a qualitative study, experiences of 10 ICLN with a 6 month ICLN program were evaluated, revealing self-reported empowerment and self-reported improvement of clinical practice (Cooper, 2005).…”

“…In a qualitative study, experiences of 10 ICLN with a 6 month ICLN program were evaluated, revealing self-reported empowerment and self-reported improvement of clinical practice (Cooper, 2005). Other papers provided suggestions for the education of link nurses, mechanisms to support them and the legitimation of the role (Williams et al, 2019; Teare et al, 2001). Although these aspects deserve attention, they fail to help in understanding how ICLN endeavour to disseminate their knowledge and improve practice, and what hinders and facilitates them during their activities.…”

Nurses’ roles in changing practice through implementing best practices: A systematic review

“…This could be individuals, for example, a clinical champion (Allen et al 2018 ; Becker et al 2020 ), a (clinical) team leader (Anderson & Kynoch 2017 ; Chong et al 2013 ), a project leader (Hu et al 2019 ; Mullins 2021 ; Yu et al 2017 ) or nurse leader (Ceballos et al 2013 ), a nurse clinician (Nazeer et al 2017; Ong et al 2017 ), a knowledge broker (Bayly et al 2018 ), a practice facilitator (Shade et al 2020 ), Facilitator CogChamps (Travers et al 2018 ), a programme or project coordinator (Fleiszer et al 2015 , 2016 ; Monkong et al 2020 ) or an audit team leader (Jia et al 2016 ). In some studies, the leader was the researcher (Mitchell 2017 ) or part of the research team (Kilpatrick et al 2020 ; Rosenberg et al 2016 ; Williams et al 2019 ).…”