The Lived Experience of Implementing Infection Control Measures in Care Homes during two waves of the COVID-19 Pandemic. A mixed-methods study
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Abstract
Context
During COVID-19 care-homes had to implement strict Infection Control Measures (ICMs), impacting on care and staff morale.
Objectives
To explore the lived experiences of care-home staff in implementing ICMs.
Methods
Mixed-methods study comprising 238 online survey responses and 15 in-depth interviews with care-home staff, November 2020-January 2021 in England.
Results
Three themes were identified: ‘Integrating COVID-19 ICMs with caring’, ‘Conveying knowledge and information’, ‘Professional and personal impacts of care-work during the pandemic’. Reported adherence to ICMs was high but fatalistic attitudes towards COVID-19 infection were present. Challenges of providing care using personal protective equipment (PPE), especially for residents with dementia, were highlighted. Interviewees reported dilemmas between strictly implementing ICMs and conflicts with providing best care to residents and preserving personal space. Nine months into COVID-19, official guidance was reported as confusing, constantly changing and poorly suited to care-homes. Care-home staff appreciated opportunities to work with other care-homes and experts to interpret and implement guidance. ICM training was undertaken using multiple techniques but with little evaluation of these or how to sustain behaviour change.
Limitations
Results may not be generalizable to other countries.
Implications
COVID-19 has had a profound effect on well-being of care-home staff. Despite challenges, participants reported broadly good morale, potentially a consequence of supportive colleagues and management. Nevertheless, clear, concise and care-home focussed ICM guidance is still needed. This should include evidence-based assessments on implementing and sustaining adherence. Groups of care-home staff and ICM experts working together to co-create, interpret and implement guidance were viewed positively.
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SciScore for 10.1101/2021.07.08.21260181: (What is this?)
Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.
Table 1: Rigor
Ethics IRB: This study was approved by our Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences Research Ethics Committee (reference: 2020/21-038) and registered on the Long-Term Care Responses to Covid Website (10/12/2020; and is reported in-line with COREQ guidelines (Tong et al. 2012). Sex as a biological variable not detected. Randomization not detected. Blinding not detected. Power Analysis not detected. Table 2: Resources
No key resources detected.
Results from OddPub: We did not detect open data. We also did not detect open code. Researchers are encouraged to share open data when possible (see Nature blog).
Results from LimitationRecognizer: An explicit section about the limitations of the techniques employed in …SciScore for 10.1101/2021.07.08.21260181: (What is this?)
Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.
Table 1: Rigor
Ethics IRB: This study was approved by our Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences Research Ethics Committee (reference: 2020/21-038) and registered on the Long-Term Care Responses to Covid Website (10/12/2020; and is reported in-line with COREQ guidelines (Tong et al. 2012). Sex as a biological variable not detected. Randomization not detected. Blinding not detected. Power Analysis not detected. Table 2: Resources
No key resources detected.
Results from OddPub: We did not detect open data. We also did not detect open code. Researchers are encouraged to share open data when possible (see Nature blog).
Results from LimitationRecognizer: An explicit section about the limitations of the techniques employed in this study was not found. We encourage authors to address study limitations.Results from TrialIdentifier: No clinical trial numbers were referenced.
Results from Barzooka: We did not find any issues relating to the usage of bar graphs.
Results from JetFighter: We did not find any issues relating to colormaps.
Results from rtransparent:- Thank you for including a conflict of interest statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
- Thank you for including a funding statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
- No protocol registration statement was detected.
Results from scite Reference Check: We found no unreliable references.
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