IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/socmed/v256y2020ics0277953620302422.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Trajectories of hospital infection control: Using non-representational theory to understand and improve infection prevention and control

Author

Listed:
  • Hooker, Claire
  • Hor, Suyin
  • Wyer, Mary
  • Gilbert, Gwendolyn L.
  • Jorm, Christine
  • Iedema, Rick

Abstract

In this paper we undertake an innovative analysis of infection prevention and control (IPC) activities in hospitals, using non-representational theory of space (2005). We deployed video-reflexive ethnography in three wards in two metropolitan teaching hospitals involving 252 healthcare workers as participants. We analysed our data iteratively using non-representational theory, which showed hospital space being constantly produced from varied, intersecting, and sometimes competing trajectories of hospital work, objects and people. The approach enabled multiple material factors impinging on routine IPC (including objects such as rolls of surgical tape), and habitual or prioritised actions (such as safeguarding patient privacy) to be included in analysis. The analysis also included the role of time which has been absent from other discussions of IPC, highlighting the transience of spaces produced through IPC practices and the need to continually re-make them. We found many situations in which the complexity of practice, rather than failures of compliance, contributed to potential microbial transmission. We show how inconsistency and confusion about IPC practice often can only be resolved through action. Our findings suggest that further reduction in preventable hospital infection rates will require better integration of IPC with other work trajectories; a shift in emphasis from compliance monitoring to collaborative practice; and greater use of in situ risk assessment and judgment.

Suggested Citation

  • Hooker, Claire & Hor, Suyin & Wyer, Mary & Gilbert, Gwendolyn L. & Jorm, Christine & Iedema, Rick, 2020. "Trajectories of hospital infection control: Using non-representational theory to understand and improve infection prevention and control," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 256(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:256:y:2020:i:c:s0277953620302422
    DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2020.113023
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277953620302422
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.socscimed.2020.113023?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Iedema, Rick, 2009. "New approaches to researching patient safety," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 69(12), pages 1701-1704, December.
    2. Mary Wyer & Debra Jackson & Rick Iedema & Su‐Yin Hor & Gwendolyn L Gilbert & Christine Jorm & Claire Hooker & Matthew Vincent Neil O'Sullivan & Katherine Carroll, 2015. "Involving patients in understanding hospital infection control using visual methods," Journal of Clinical Nursing, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 24(11-12), pages 1718-1729, June.
    3. Andrews, Gavin J. & Duff, Cameron, 2019. "Matter beginning to matter: On posthumanist understandings of the vital emergence of health," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 226(C), pages 123-134.
    4. Mesman, Jessica, 2009. "The geography of patient safety: A topical analysis of sterility," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 69(12), pages 1705-1712, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Nicolini, Davide & Waring, Justin & Mengis, Jeanne, 2011. "Policy and practice in the use of root cause analysis to investigate clinical adverse events: Mind the gap," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 73(2), pages 217-225, July.
    2. Ovretveit, John, 2009. "The contribution of new social science research to patient safety," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 69(12), pages 1780-1783, December.
    3. Andrews, Gavin J. & Duff, Cameron, 2020. "‘Whole onflow’, the productive event: an articulation through health," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 265(C).
    4. Laetitia Zeeman & Kay Aranda, 2020. "A Systematic Review of the Health and Healthcare Inequalities for People with Intersex Variance," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(18), pages 1-18, September.
    5. Lupton, Deborah & Lewis, Sophie, 2022. "Sociomaterialities of health, risk and care during COVID-19: Experiences of Australians living with a medical condition," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 293(C).
    6. Rhodes, Tim & Lancaster, Kari, 2019. "Evidence-making interventions in health: A conceptual framing," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 238(C), pages 1-1.
    7. Neely, Eva, 2023. "Theorising mother-baby-assemblages: The vital emergence of maternal health," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 317(C).
    8. Elton, Sarah, 2021. "Relational health: Theorizing plants as health-supporting actors," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 281(C).
    9. Andrews, Gavin J. & Shaw, David, 2010. ""So we started talking about a beach in Barbados": Visualization practices and needle phobia," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 71(10), pages 1804-1810, November.
    10. Rich, Emma & Lupton, Deborah, 2022. "Rethinking digital biopedagogies: How sociomaterial relations shape English secondary students' digital health practices," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 311(C).
    11. Prentice, Rachel, 2018. "How surgery became a global public health issue," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 17-23.
    12. Camille Bellet & Lindsay Hamilton & Jonathan Rushton, 2021. "Re-thinking public health: Towards a new scientific logic of routine animal health care in European industrial farming," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 8(1), pages 1-11, December.
    13. Buse, Christina & Brown, Nik & Nettleton, Sarah & Martin, Daryl & Lewis, Alan, 2020. "Caring through distancing: Spatial boundaries and proximities in the cystic fibrosis clinic," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 265(C).
    14. Iedema, Rick, 2009. "New approaches to researching patient safety," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 69(12), pages 1701-1704, December.
    15. Ducey, Ariel & Donoso, Claudia & Ross, Sue & Robert, Magali, 2020. "From anatomy to patient experience in pelvic floor surgery: Mindlines, evidence, responsibility, and transvaginal mesh," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 260(C).
    16. Mamdooh Alzyood & Debra Jackson & Joanne Brooke & Helen Aveyard, 2018. "An integrative review exploring the perceptions of patients and healthcare professionals towards patient involvement in promoting hand hygiene compliance in the hospital setting," Journal of Clinical Nursing, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 27(7-8), pages 1329-1345, April.
    17. Wiltshire, Gareth & Pullen, Emma & Brown, Frankie F. & Osborn, Mike & Wexler, Sarah & Beresford, Mark & Tooley, Mark & Turner, James E., 2020. "The experiences of cancer patients within the material hospital environment: Three ways that materiality is affective," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 264(C).
    18. Willemine Willems, 2021. "Countering the Tragedy of the Health Care Commons by Exnovation: Bringing Unexpected Problems and Solutions into View," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(23), pages 1-19, November.
    19. Grant, Suzanne & Guthrie, Bruce, 2018. "Between demarcation and discretion: The medical-administrative boundary as a locus of safety in high-volume organisational routines," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 203(C), pages 43-50.
    20. Williams, Jessy E. & Pykett, Jessica, 2022. "Mental health monitoring apps for depression and anxiety in children and young people: A scoping review and critical ecological analysis," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 297(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:256:y:2020:i:c:s0277953620302422. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/315/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.