Employees at a North Carolina hospital were five times more likely to report infection prevention issues if they faced a higher risk of contracting COVID-19 compared to their co-workers, according to a new study.
To find out if compliance to infection control measures differed among healthcare workers' roles, researchers analyzed surveys from 191 people working at the Chapel Hill-based University of North Carolina Medical Center between July 2020 and January 2021. They found statistically significant differences among job roles, and there was a positive correlation between the rate of infection prevention errors and the individual's risk of exposure.
Respondents were divided between three categories: physicians, advanced practice providers, physician assistants and nurse practitioners (45%); registered nurses (27%); and "other" (28%), which included therapists, dietitians, and members of food and environmental services.
About 29% of physicians, 38% of workers in the "other" group, and nearly 60% of nurses completed tasks that put them at higher risk of contracting COVID-19. Compared to low-risk healthcare workers, these employees were 5.74 times more likely to report at least one error in infection precautions, such as failing to don personal protective gear.
Emily Haas, PhD, lead author of the study, said the findings are "a clear demonstration that we need to improve engagement in our training for emergency preparedness and to create a more strategic response that will help our healthcare workers stay safe even in times of extreme stress," according to a post from the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology.
The study's results were published Dec. 6 in the American Journal of Infection Control.