Background: In recent times, infection prevention and patient safety have become a global health policy priority with thought being given to understanding organisational culture within healthcare, and of its significance in initiating sustained quality improvement within infection prevention and patient safety. This paper seeks to explore the ways in which engagement of healthcare workers with infection prevention principles and practices, shape and inform patient safety culture within the context of hospital isolation settings; and vice-versa.
Research Methods: In this paper, we utilise focus group interviews at two hospital sites within one health board in order to engage healthcare staff in elaborating on their understandings of infection prevention practices and patient safety culture within isolation settings in their organisation.
Background: Post-marketing surveillance for COVID-19 vaccines during the pandemic identified an extremely rare thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome (TTS) reported post-vaccination, requiring further characterisation to improve diagnosis and management.
Methods: We searched the AstraZeneca Global Safety Database (through April 26, 2021) for cases with co-reported thrombocytopenia and thrombosis (using standardised MedDRA queries/high-level terms) following AZD1222 (ChAdOx1 nCoV-19). Cases were adjudicated by experts as 'typical','possible', 'no' or 'unknown' according to available TTS criteria.
, Advanced Nurse Practitioner, Community Infection Prevention, Hywel Dda University Health Board (Sue.Y.Rees@wales.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Healthcare associated infection (HCAI) is a major cause of morbidity and mortality. In recent years, there have been high profile successes in infection prevention control (IPC), such as the dramatic reductions in methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) bloodstream infections (which is viewed as one proxy indicator of overall harm) and Clostridium difficile in the UK. Nevertheless, HCAI remains a costly burden to health services, a source of concern to patients and the public and at present, is receiving priority from policy makers as it contributes to the global threat of antimicrobial resistance.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSocial media use is growing globally, with a reported 3 billion active users in 2017. This medium is used increasingly in a health setting by patients (and to a limited extent, healthcare professionals) to share experiences and ask advice on medical conditions as well as pharmaceutical products. In recent years, attention has turned to this huge, generally untapped, source of potential health information as a possible tool for pharmacovigilance, and in particular signal detection.
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