Study: Sufficient staff and participatory environment support COVID-19 specific infection control guidance in long-term care facilities
The adoption and adherence to the COVID-19 specific infection prevention and control (IPC) guidance in long-term care facilities can be improved by ensuring that there is enough personnel in relation to the work tasks, the work culture promotes management feedback and support and all healthcare workers have sufficient knowledge of the guidance.
This is concluded in the THL’s study, which examined the type of COVID-19 specific IPC measures that are difficult to implement and the kind of behavioral factors that affect the compliance of healthcare workers to this guidance.
According to the respondents, the implementation of the guidelines has been weakened by the management culture where the supervisors are not physically present, and feedback is rarely given. Additionally, the respondents found it difficult that there was a lot of information, changing information and information that was not applicable in their working environment.
IPC measures that were difficult to implement included environmental cleaning and the use of personal protective equipment. However, hand hygiene measures were not perceived challenging.
The study findings indicate that the following measures can improve the compliance to COVID-19 specific IPC measures:
- Ensuring sufficient personnel, which is adjusted to the responsibilities and tasks of the personnel
- Building a management culture that includes interaction and feedback.
- Developing communications in work communities so that the contents of the guidelines are understandable, and the instructions are readily available and applicable to the work environment in question.
The THL's study was carried out via an online survey and qualitative interviews based on the Theoretical Domains Framework (TDF). A total of 422 healthcare workers from 17 hospital districts responded to the survey and 20 registered nurses or assistant nurses participated in the interviews.
Further information
COVID-19 -infektioiden torjuntaohjeistuksen toteutumiseen vaikuttavia tekijöitä. Kysely- ja haastattelututkimus pitkäaikaishoidon toimintayksiköissä Suomessa. ( in Finnish)
Working paper 31/2021
Anna-Leena Lohiniva
Senior Specialist
tel. +358 29 524 7191
[email protected]
