COVID-19 Personal Protective Equipment in the Home: Navigating the Complexity of Donning and Doffing.

Purpose: The safety of care professionals and patients is paramount while caring for people with infectious diseases, including those with confirmed or suspected severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection and coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Existing policies and protocols for donning and doffing personal protective equipment (PPE) are primarily for institutional settings such as hospitals, not for home visits for patient care. We describe a protocol for donning and doffing PPE in home settings.

Hand hygiene knowledge, attitudes, and practices among hospital inpatients: A descriptive study.

Background: Pathogens may be transmitted in hospitals via patients' own hands, but little is known about the facilitators and barriers of hand hygiene among inpatients. This study aimed to assess the hand hygiene knowledge, attitudes, and practices of adult inpatients at 5 hospitals.

Methods: The study consisted of a cross-sectional survey distributed followed by structured interviews with randomly selected inpatients.

Infectious disease outbreaks and increased complexity of care.

Aim: This study examined the effects of healthcare-associated infectious disease outbreaks on nurses' work in a large acute care hospital in Ontario, Canada.

Background: The incidence of healthcare-associated infections has increased. Previous research focuses on epidemiology, healthcare systems, and the economic burden of outbreaks.

The audit process: Part I. Pre-audit preparation.

Infection prevention and control audits are an important element in the achievement of a health care setting's patient safety goals. The successful audit can result in enhanced partnerships between infection control professionals and other departments and services in the organization, implement change and lead to continuing improvement in outcomes for patients/residents and staff. In this first part of the audit process, the preparation leading up to the actual administration of the audit is described.