Community Involvement and Outreach

Alderwick, H., Hutchings, A., Briggs, A., & Mays, N. (2021). The impacts of collaboration between local health care and non-health care organizations and factors shaping how they work: A systematic review of reviews. BioMedical Public Health, 21(1), 753. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-021-10630-1

The article addresses the topic of inter-collaboration between health organizations and the community. The article is a study of the effectiveness of collaboration between a health organization and the community in ensuring patient safety. The results from the study showed an improved health outcome from the collaboration efforts made. Most of these efforts were directed toward preventive care and patient safety issues. The community can be actively involved in ensuring that health professionals are strictly adhering to the safety guidelines set in place to prevent HAIs. Similarly, nurses can use this resource as a guide on how to collaborate with community members in educating the general public on HAIs.  Doing so will ensure that people have knowledge of HAI and what to look out for.

Fernandes Agreli, H., Murphy, M., Creedon, S., Ni Bhuachalla, C., O’Brien, D., Gould, D., Savage, E., Barry, F., Drennan, J., Smiddy, M. P., Condell, S., Horgan, S., Murphy, S., Wills, T., Burton, A., & Hegarty, J. (2019). Patient involvement in the implementation of infection prevention and control guidelines and associated interventions: A scoping review. British Medical Journal Open, 9(3), e025824. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2018-025824

The article discusses the need for patient involvement in coming up with infection prevention control guidelines. According to the article, 70% of all HAIs can be prevented. With this in mind, the article proposes several ways that patients can be included in coming up with IPC guidelines. One active way a patient can be involved is by being tasked with the role of educating other patients on HAIs and preventive measures to look out for. Similarly, patients can be actively involved in reminding their caregivers to observe the hand hygiene guidelines set in place. This resource can be used as an educative source from which nurses can learn the different ways to involve patients and their families in observing the preventive measures for HAIs. Similarly, nurses can offer support to these patients, by acknowledging their contribution to counter any fear that the patient might be harboring.

Haldane, V., Chuah, F. L. H., Srivastava, A., Singh, S. R., Koh, G. C. H., Seng, C. K., & Legido-Quigley, H. (2019). Community participation in health services development, implementation, and evaluation: A systematic review of empowerment, health, community, and process outcomes. PLoS One, 14(5), e0216112. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0216112

The article discusses the need for a community to be involved in the planning making and implementing decisions in healthcare. According to the article present studies show there are numerous benefits to engaging the community in controlling primary healthcare services such as preventive care. An example given of how the community can be involved in addressing hospital infections is by setting up initiatives. This initiative will be tasked with the work of advocating for the adherence of safety measures in hospitals. This resource can be helpful as the article encourages the involvement of the community in actively reminding health professionals to watch out for the safety of the patients. Nurses can use these initiatives to further advocate for the observation of hand hygiene as well as the use of clean sterilized equipment on patients.

Osborne, J., Paget, J., Giles-Vernick, T., Kutalek, R., Napier, D., Baliatsas, C., & Dückers, M. (2021). Community engagement and vulnerability in infectious diseases: A systematic review and qualitative analysis of the literature. Social Science & Medicine, 284(1), 114246. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2021.114246

The article acknowledges the serious threat that hospital infections pose. By using community engagement as an approach, the issue of infections can be fully brought to light and properly addressed. According to the article, the involvement of a community has proven to be effective in lowering the number of infections recorded. The article discusses two ways in which a community can be engaged. One is through utilitarian engagement and the other is through social justice-oriented engagement. This resource is helpful to nurses as it presents a number of ways that nurses can utilize to engage a community in preventing HAIs. Nurses can opt to offer support to community initiatives that empower and address inequities that lead to hospital infections.