The Effective Nursing Interventions for Controlling and Preventing Health Care-Associated Infections

Abstract

ABSTRACT Health care-associated infections (HCAIs) cause a continued worldwide challenge to hospital safety. They are especially pertinent because their incidence and impact on patient mortality are high, including occurrences in Finnish hospitals, where conformity to infection control protocols remains challenging. Despite international and national guidelines, many nurses struggle to comply with recommended infection control measures. The main goal of the thesis was to explore the efficient nursing strategies that improve compliance with recommended infection control and prevention (ICP) protocols among nurses and reduce the potential risk of HCAIs in hospital settings. The purpose was to generate evidence-based information related to practical nursing ICP programmes and hospital policy improvement. The descriptive literature review was used as the research methodology to explore from various data sources. a phenomenon The main steps consisted of data collection, and the inclusion and exclusion criteria were defined rigorously. Appropriate keywords were used, and twelve research articles were selected for the final review. Thematic content analysis was used to identify key patterns in the data. The findings of the literature review emphasised the importance of effective nursing interventions in enhancing safe patient care and reducing the potential risk of HCAIs. Key findings from the study include targeted continuing education for health care workers (HCWs), developing the ICP nurse role modelling and implementing regular monitoring and real-time performance feedback. Based on the findings, hospitals must maintain continuous, modernised education and training policies and support nursing leaders who will enforce protocol compliance. Building a systematic monitoring tool, such as audits and cross- functional teams, has proven helpful in enhancing compliance with ICP guidelines. Adopting such strategies will be the foundation for refining hospital policies and creating training programs to empower nurses to adhere to high infection control standards. By providing students with this fundamental evidence, the study aims to prepare future nurses to develop their ICP awareness and skills, enabling them to apply this knowledge in realistic clinical practice. The study recommended future research on nurses’ compliance with the recommended ICP guidelines to improve patient outcomes. Keywords: healthcare-associated infections, hospital-acquired infections, nosocomial infections, nursing intervention, hand hygiene, nursing compliance, nursing, infection prevention, infection control