How does innovative technology impact nursing in infectious diseases and infection control? A scoping review

Adapting the Germ Defence Web-Based Intervention to Improve Infection Prevention and Control in Care Homes: Interview Study Among Care Home Staff

BACKGROUND

Infection prevention and control (IPC) is vital in care homes as it can reduce morbidity and mortality by 30%. Ensuring good IPC practice is a perennial challenge in the varied and complex context of care homes. Behavior change interventions delivered via digital technology may be effective in improving IPC among care home staff.

OBJECTIVE

This study aimed to evaluate how an evidence-based, digital behavior change intervention called Germ Defence can be rapidly adapted to meet the needs of care homes.

METHODS

This study applied the person-based approach, which emphasizes iterative approaches to optimizing interventions via individual user feedback. Phase 1 involved initial edits to the website by the research team to create Germ Defence for Care Homes (GDCH) version 1. Phase 2 consisted of stakeholder consultation on GDCH version 1 followed by edits to create GDCH version 2. The formal research (phases 3 and 4) involved individual think-aloud interviews with 21 staff members from management, care, and ancillary positions in 4 care homes providing real-time feedback as they worked through GDCH. Edits were made to create GDCH version 3 between phases 3 and 4. During the development of GDCH versions 2 and 3, it became clear that the intervention would need more fundamental changes beyond the pragmatic, incremental changes that would be possible within the scope of this study. Analysis was completed via a rapid, qualitative descriptive approach to develop a high-level summary of key findings from the interview data.

RESULTS

There were mixed results about the attractiveness of GDCH and its suitability to the care home context. Participants felt that the images needed to be aligned much more closely with the meaning of adjacent text. Many participants felt that they would not have time to read a text-based website, and some suggested that more engaging content, including audio and video, may be preferable. Most participants felt that the overall concept of Germ Defence was clearly relevant to their context. Some felt that it might be a useful introduction for new staff members or a refresher for current staff, but others felt that it did not add anything to their existing IPC training. There were mixed opinions about the level of detail provided in the information offered by the site. While the goal-setting behavior change mechanism may have potential, the findings suggested that it may be unsuitable for care homes and more work is needed to refine it.

CONCLUSIONS

Much more work needs to be done to make Germ Defence more engaging, accessible, and relevant to the care home workforce. Our study highlights the challenges of rapidly adapting an existing intervention to a new context. Future research in this area will require a pragmatic methodological approach with a focus on implementation.

Importance of Hospital Infection Control

The increasing demand for healthcare-acquired infection (HAI) control practices and services has intensified the need to evaluate care quality. The World Health Organization (WHO) introduced an infection prevention and control (IPC) framework to mitigate the impact of HAIs, crucial for ensuring patient safety in hospitals. HAIs acquired after hospitalization pose significant challenges due to factors such as compromised immunity, invasive medical procedures, and antibiotic-resistant pathogens, which have dire consequences, including higher mortality rates and increased healthcare costs. Healthcare workers (HCWs) are critical in implementing IPC measures. Infection control programs that include strategies such as hand hygiene, personal protective equipment (PPE), environmental cleaning, and surveillance have become standard. However, challenges such as resistance to change, resource limitations, patient turnover, and variability in patient conditions persist. Strategies to maintain hospital infection control involve rigorous compliance monitoring, staff education, advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), telemedicine, and innovative sanitation methods. The future of hospital infection control may involve increased integration of environmental monitoring, antimicrobial stewardship, and patient participation while leveraging collaboration among healthcare facilities. The review highlights the criticality of hospital infection control and suggests trends and opportunities to strengthen prevention efforts and patient safety.

Research Trends in Artificial Intelligence-Associated Nursing Activities Based on a Review of Academic Studies Published From 2001 to 2020

The present study referred to the technology-based learning model to conduct a systematic review of the dimensions of nursing activities, research samples, research methods, roles of artificial intelligence, applied artificial intelligence algorithms, evaluation measure of algorithms, and research foci. Based on the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses procedure, this study obtained and analyzed a total of 102 high-quality artificial intelligence-associated nursing activities studies published from 2001 to 2020 in the Web of Science database. The results showed: (1) In terms of nursing activities, nursing management was explored the most, followed by nursing assessment; (2) quantitative methods were most frequently adopted in artificial intelligence-associated nursing activities studies to investigate issues related to patients, followed by nursing staff; (3) the most adopted roles of artificial intelligence in artificial intelligence-associated nursing activities studies were profiling and prediction, followed by assessment and evaluation; (4) artificial intelligence-associated nursing activities studies frequently mixed applied artificial intelligence algorithms and evaluation measure of algorithms; (5) in the dimension of research foci, most studies mainly paid attention to the design or evaluation of the artificial intelligence systems/instruments, followed by investigating the correlation and affect issues. Based on the findings, several recommendations are raised as a reference for future researchers, educators, and policy makers.

Design, Development, and Evaluation of the Blood Collection Management Workstation

Purpose

To design and develop a blood collection management workstation with high usability to reduce the risk of preanalytical errors and improve patient safety.

Methods

A five-phase mobile application development lifecycle model (MADLC) and experience-based co-design (EBCD) were used for design and development. Subsequently, the blood collection management workstation was evaluated using the Chinese System Usability Scale (SUS) in a general ward setting from January to June 2021.

Results

It was used on 2593 in-patients who underwent phlebotomy with 12,378 tubes being labeled. The rate of errors and meantime for blood sampling were decreased compared with the same period in the previous year. A total of 14 nurses agreed to participate in the evaluation, and the overall raw SUS score was 69.26 ± 10.39, which indicated above average results.

Conclusion

The blood collection management workstation has shown the potential to decrease errors and improve working efficiency in a clinical setting. The study also identified some weaknesses, which will be amended in the future.

Governance Quality, Public Health, Education, and Innovation: Study for Novel Implications

Pandemic or worldwide disease is the greatest issue of all time that not only affects human health but also influences the economic, educational, and other activities of the countries, since malaria is among the leading health disease that disrupts the economic system of the country. Therefore, this study aimed to analyze whether educational expenditure and technological innovation influence malarial incidence in emerging economies. This study also examined the role of government effectiveness, government health expenditure, gross domestic growth, human capital, and research and development during the period 2000-2018. Employing panel data approaches, including the slope heterogeneity and cross-sectional dependence, the second-generation unit root test reveals the stationarity of all variables. The study also validated the existence of a long-run relationship between the variables. Based on the asymmetrical distribution properties, this study employed the quantile regression approach. The empirical results asserted that education and technological innovation significantly reduce malarial incidents in the panel economies. Also, government effectiveness, research and development, and human capital adversely affect incidences of malaria. In contrast, gross domestic product is the only factor found that increases malarial incidents during the selected period. Based on the empirical results, this study suggested policy measures that could benefit the governors, policymakers, and scholars.

How does innovative technology impact nursing in infectious diseases and infection control? A scoping review

AIM

Considering the increasing number of emerging infectious diseases, innovative approaches are strongly in demand. Additionally, research in this field has expanded exponentially. Thus, faced with this diverse information, we aim to clarify key concepts and knowledge gaps of technology in nursing and the field of infectious diseases.

DESIGN

This scoping review followed the methodology of scoping review guidance from Arksey and O'Malley.

METHODS

Six databases were searched systematically (PubMed, Web of Science, IEEE Explore, EBSCOhost, Cochrane Library and Summon). After the removal of duplicates, 532 citations were retrieved and 77 were included in the analysis.

RESULTS

We identified five major trends in technology for nursing and infectious diseases: artificial intelligence, the Internet of things, information and communications technology, simulation technology and e-learning. Our findings indicate that the most promising trend is the IoT because of the many positive effects validated in most of the reviewed studies.