Impact of educational interventions for professionals on infection control practices to reduce healthcare-associated infections and prevent infectious diseases: A systematic review

Abstract

Background

Educational interventions can decrease the rates of healthcare-associated infections (HAIs). We do not know current evidence on what kind of educational interventions are the most effective to reduce HAIs and infectious diseases. The aim of this systematic review was to examine the impact of educational interventions for health and social care professionals on infection control practices to reduce HAIs and prevent infectious diseases.

Methods

We searched for papers published between January 1, 2006 and November 16, 2021, using the CINAHL, Medic, MEDLINE, and Scopus databases. Quality appraisal was conducted using the Cochrane risk of bias tool for randomised controlled trials and ROBINS-I for quasi-experimental studies. Data were analysed using a deductive content analysis with The Guideline for Reporting Evidence-based Practice Educational interventions and Teaching checklist and The Classification Rubric for Evidence-based Practice Assessment Tools in Education as frameworks.

Findings

The data included 12 studies. Educational interventions on infection control practices have been developed as single, one-time interventions on a local basis. Two studies reported statistically significant outcomes in three of the areas evaluated, which were skills, knowledge, and self-efficacy for the first study, and benefits to the patient, behaviours, and knowledge for the second one. Benefits to the patient were evaluated in seven studies, and out of these, five showed statistically significant improvement.

Conclusions

There is currently no evidence of long-term learning paths or comparisons of different interventions to determine the most effective way to educate healthcare professionals. Statistically significant findings indicate that educational interventions on infection control practices should include both theoretical and practical learning activities.