Infection preventionists' challenges in psychiatric clinical settings

Abstract

Background: Infection preventionists (IPs) play an important role in preventing health care–associated infections in a health care system. However, the limitations of the clinical setting and the unique characteristics of psychiatric patients could be barriers to effective infection prevention. The purpose of this study was to understand how IPs perceived their challenges and how these challenges negatively affect their infection prevention work in psychiatric clinical settings. Methods: A descriptive, qualitative research approach was used in this study. Thirteen Taiwanese psychiatric IPs were interviewed in semistructured interviews. Data were transcribed and then analyzed by thematic analysis. Results: This analysis identified 6 themes: (1) lack of preservice training in psychiatric infection control, (2) insufficient staffing in practice, (3) working within environmental limits, (4) patient noncompliance, (5) undervaluation of the importance of infection control by professionals, and (6) involvement of hospital administrators. Conclusions: The implementation of effective infection prevention in psychiatric clinical settings may be strongly related to the factors of sufficient training and IP staffing while relying on collaboration among patients and clinical professionals and on the full support of administrators.