Health care workers' recommendations for strengthening tuberculosis infection control in the Dominican Republic

Abstract

Objective To describe health care workers' practical recommendations for strengthening adherence to Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection control practices in their health institutions and elsewhere across the Dominican Republic. Methods In this qualitative study, 10 focus groups, with a total of 40 clinicians (24 physicians, 16 nurses), were conducted in 2016 at two tertiary-level institutions in the Dominican Republic. Grounded theory guided the analysis to expand on health care workers' recommendations for empowering clinicians to adhere to M. tuberculosis infection control practices. To ensure reliability and validity, the authors analyzed data and incorporated both peer debriefing with qualitative experts and participant feedback or validation on the final themes. Results Six emerging themes were described: 1) education and training; 2) administrative policy; 3) infrastructure policy; 4) economic allocations; 5) research; and 6) public health policy. Conclusions Future efforts may combine the health care workers' recommendations with evidence-based strategies in M. tuberculosis infection control in low-resource settings. This could pave the way for interventions that empower health care workers in their application of M. tuberculosis infection control measures in clinical practice.

Compliance of Healthcare Worker’s toward Tuberculosis Preventive Measures in Workplace: A Systematic Literature Review

“…A similar finding was also reported in one study as the training of HCWs was not considered important [31]. However, two studies addressed the relevance of training, where HCWs were constantly trained to improve their practices of TPMs [22,28]. In fact, training was identified as one of the barriers to implementing the control measures.…”

“…Generally, they also had good knowledge regarding the transmission of the disease, but it was not put into action. This knowledge-action gap was highlighted in several studies included in this review [5,28,33,46,54].…”

“…Figure 1 shows the results of the search strategy and study selection process according to the PRISMA guidelines. The six excluded articles are listed in Table 5 with the reason for exclusion and the relevant findings [20,[28][29][30][31][32].…”

“…Chapman 2018 [28] Health care workers' recommendation for strengthening TBIC in the Dominican Republic This qualitative study described the HCWs' recommendation for strengthening adherence to TB infection practices in their health institutions across the Dominican Republic.…”

Lessons Learned During the COVID-19 Pandemic to Strengthen TB Infection Control: A Rapid Review

“…This search was simultaneously integrated with findings reported from a previous qualitative study that examined challenges in TB prevention and control in a middle-income country, the Dominican Republic. [25][26][27]…”