IP 2 0 2 1 R EVIEW
to get there? What measures will we have to take to manage this, in the meantime?” said Prof. Wilson. “We need to adapt and move forward. We need to work out what infection control is important and recognise that we are in a fortunate position, that we can rely on a vaccine as our key mitigation measure. Vaccines have always been our key mitigation against infections,” she asserted. Prof. Wilson revealed that she has being working with Prof. Heather Loveday and colleagues, at the University of West London, on a project funded by the National Institute of Health Research (NIHR), with the aim of looking at pandemic preparedness and establishing lessons that can be learned. The goal is to ensure that if – and when – a threat occurs in the future, systems will be in place to support infection prevention and control (IP&C), and IP&C teams. A survey has been sent to IP&C departments across the UK to help direct and drive this important research forward.
She commented that IPS, in running the conference, was “leading the way out of the pandemic” – there is a need to learn lessons, embrace different ways of working and re-focus on core infection prevention and control problems. In particular, she highlighted the ongoing issue of healthcare workers relying on gloves as ‘the solution to infection prevention’ – when, in fact, the incorrect use of clinical gloves and the failure to change them between procedures increases the risk of cross-transmission. “We need to go back to reinforcing the role of hand hygiene in preventing transmission of infections. Infection control is much bigger than a single respiratory infection – there are so many things that we, as specialists, need to know to drive improvement. This is the role that IP2021 will have,” she concluded.
Viewing IP&C through a different lens Prof. Heather Loveday, director of research at the Richard Wells Research Centre, University of West London, went on to
deliver the E.M Cottrell Lecture – Infection prevention: through a different lens. She reflected that IP&C teams have been “challenged to the extreme of their skills” and their personal resilience has been tested. In the wake of the pandemic, IP&C teams need to look through “a new lens”, in her view, or run the risk of making the same mistakes and “not moving forward”.
She pointed out that infection prevention should not be just about meeting targets, but about sharing patients’ experiences to motivate teams to prevent harm. “One of the barriers we face in changing behaviour around infection prevention and control is that treatment has become far more siloed and more task orientated. Measures to prevent infection are viewed as ‘getting in the way’ of what people see as being their ‘real jobs’. But IP&C is at the heart of keeping people safe and the heart of fundamental nursing and care,” she asserted.
Hindsight and the pandemic While lessons need to be learnt from the past and ongoing challenges addressed, we also
need to seize the opportunities ahead. Joan Marques, dean and professor of management at Woodbury University’s School of Business, in the US once said: “Whether we succeed or fail in life depends on our ability to conquer the challenges in our opportunities, and to discover the opportunities in our challenges”, a quote that feels especially pertinent to the pandemic experience. Prof. Loveday, pointed out that our challenge, at present, is “moving forward”.
“I think we could become hostage to COVID,” she warned. “We have taken on many roles and activities in the pursuit of trying to manage this pandemic. Some of these will ‘stick’ and will be beneficial – the pandemic has given us the opportunity to make inroads into our relationships within Trusts, communities and public health partners. However, there will also be things that you will want to stop doing, that take you away from the central role of your job.” Hindsight allows us to reflect and learn from the past – we need to look back with ‘new eyes’ to uncover what we missed in managing the pandemic, although this can be extremely hard, Prof. Loveday acknowledged.
“When looking back at the Ebola epidemic, for example, we have learnt that there is no point having ‘boots and eyes on the ground’ if they are not listened to,” she commented. Real-time diagnostics are also increasingly essential; communication must be swift, effective and culturally sensitive; and we need surge capacity to respond to global epidemics.
Foresight and infection threats She pointed out that, in 2006, the Department of Health’s Foresight group identified eight classes of disease that were deemed ‘important in the next 10-25 years’,
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