Understanding stakeholder beliefs, attitudes and responses to COVID-19 infection prevention and control (IPC): a multimodal qualitative study
Project Team
Description
Collaborators
- Alex Broom
- Katherine Kenny
- Jennifer Broom
- Chris Degeling
- Penny Burns
- Leah Williams Veazey
- Stephanie Raymond
Outcomes for Australia
This project will identify concerns and misconceptions about COVID-19 infection prevention and control (IPC) in our frontline carers and individuals in quarantine. This will inform future strategies to enhance IPC policies and practices in multiple community and healthcare settings.
Background
The information and attitudes conveyed by employers, public health authorities, politicians, (social and mainstream) media and ‘experts’ are variable and often contradictory or confusing to healthcare workers, paramedics and institutional carers (eg. of children or the elderly), also known as ‘frontline carers’.
How these messages are perceived can affect the confidence and behaviours of frontline carers and, potentially, their safety and the safety of those they care for. Altered perceptions of messages can create adverse affects such as inconsistent attitudes/responses to recommendations about IPC and inconsistent understanding of the use of personal protective equipment (PPE), especially masks and P2/N95 respirators.
The attitudes and experiences of individuals in quarantine is also vitally important to understand.
Objectives
- Understand the attitudes, beliefs and concerns about COVID-19 IPC methods and policies in frontline carers and individuals in quarantine.
- Develop more effective communication strategies that will lead to more positive responses and compliance with IPC advice by frontline carers, during COVID-19 and other emergencies.
Read about other COVID-19 projects funded by the National Health and Medical Research Council
Related Research Areas
- Clinical research and infection prevention
Related Publications
- ‘Like building a plane and flying it all in one go’: an interview study of infection prevention and control in Australian general practice during the first 2 years of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic
- “One minute it’s an airborne virus, then it’s a droplet virus, and then it’s like nobody really knows…”: Experiences of pandemic PPE amongst Australian healthcare workers
- Education and training in infection prevention and control: Exploring support for national standards
- Entanglements of affect, space, and evidence in pandemic healthcare: An analysis of Australian healthcare workers’ experiences of COVID-19
- Experiences of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic amongst Australian Healthcare workers: From stressors to protective factors
- Hospital health care workers’ use of facial protective equipment before the COVID-19 pandemic, implications for future policy
- Paradoxes of pandemic infection control: Proximity, pace and care within and beyond SARS-CoV-2