Brief report
National survey of Thai infection preventions in the era of patient safety

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A national survey of infection preventionists was conducted in Thailand to assess career satisfaction, perceived barriers to implementing infection control practices and current sources of continuing education. Despite positive career satisfaction, several barriers were identified, including a lack of physicians to champion infection control efforts and difficulty remaining current with new evidence-based recommendations.

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Methods

A national survey was conducted among IPs in Thailand from January 1, 2010, to October 31, 2010. We surveyed all hospitals in Thailand with an intensive care unit and at least 250 hospital beds (n = 256) according to the list from the Ministry of Public Health of Thailand. The survey instrument was modified from an instrument developed by Krein et al and Saint et al and was previously used in the United States (“Translating Infection Prevention Evidence in Acute Care” survey instrument).3, 4, 5

Results

Of the 256 eligible hospitals, 204 (80%) responded to the survey. Characteristics of respondent hospitals and IPs are summarized in Table 1, Table 2, respectively. All responding hospitals had an IP, and 48% were affiliated with a medical school. A total of 80% of IPs reported that their infection control programs had strong support from hospital administration. The 2 most important reported barriers to implementing infection control interventions were (1) a lack of a physician champion who

Discussion

Our national survey suggests that career satisfaction among IPs in Thailand is reasonably high. Despite this positive level of satisfaction, we identified a number of barriers that impede the ability of IPs to facilitate effective implementation of infection control practices. Of note, the lack of involvement of physicians willing to serve as champions advocating for change and difficulty staying current with new recommendations were both perceived as major barriers to infection control work.

Acknowledgment

The authors thank Ms. Varaporn Thienthong, RN, CIC, secretary of Thai Infection Control Nurse Society, for sharing data on the total number of ICNs in Thailand.

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Supported by the National Research University Project of the Thailand Office of Higher Education Commission (to A.A. and T.K.).

Conflicts of interest: None to report.

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