I P&C POL ICY


safe family interactions now and apply infection prevention and control with compassion. Actively facilitate safe family interactions and support planning to ensure adequate infection prevention and control supplies, and the implementation of training and communication activities/ materials.


4. Healthcare leaders: Speak up and support infection prevention and control with compassion, respect infection prevention and control expertise but help apply it in support of the ethos of this letter.


5. Families: Understand, respect and adhere to the infection prevention and control recommendations requested of you to support the safety of yourself, your loved ones and care home staff.


6. Campaigning groups: Use the open letter to support your efforts.14


Among the signatories included a number of former IPC presidents, the current president Professor Jennie Wilson, Dr. Ron Daniels, chief executive of the UK Sepsis Trust, along with leading IPC nurse specialists, nurse academics, other healthcare professionals, and carers. “We need to shift thinking and actions towards more proportionate and compassionate IP&C,” commented Storr, calling for a ‘paradigm shift’ and a new model for IP&C. “What has been successful in the past, may not be the way forward when we think of compassionate application of IP&C,” she continued, adding that, as individuals, we “need to ask questions, to challenge decisions, to think about the consequences and to live compassionate IP&C”. She also highlighted the need to strengthen IP&C leadership and influence, to help shape policy, as well as drawing on exemplars. IP&C was not listened to “at some of the top tables” and this is a serious concern, according to Storr. She added that the stories from the pandemic should be used to inform compassionate IP&C, while there is a need to improve proportionate risk communication to allay fear and terror, which resulted in some care homes implementing policies that have resulted in harm. She concluded by presenting details of a collaboration with care home relatives in Scotland that aims to make compassionate IP&C a reality. The website resources are


designed to support safe compassionate human interaction in care homes and can be accessed at https://enablesafecare.org CSJ


This piece is based on the transcript of Julie Storr’s presentation and all references cited are those included within the presentation delivered at IP 2021.


References 1 Elliott P, Storr, J, Jeanes, A, Infection Prevention and Control Perceptions and Perspectives, 2016.


2 Holt, J, Meticillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus infection – the infectious stigma of our time? Journal of Hospital Infection, Published:January 10, 2011DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhin.2010.09.029


3 World Health Organization, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development & International Bank for Reconstruction and Development. (2018). Delivering quality health services: a global imperative for universal health coverage. World Health Organization. https://apps.who.int/iris/ handle/10665/272465. License: CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO


4 Trzeciak, S, and Mazzarelli, A, Compassionomics: The Revolutionary Scientific Evidence That Caring Makes a Difference. Accessed at: https://www. compassionomics.com


5 Del Canale S, Louis DZ, Maio V, Wang X, Rossi G, Hojat M, Gonnella JS. The relationship between physician empathy and disease complications: an empirical study of primary care physicians and their diabetic patients in Parma, Italy. Acad Med. 2012 Sep;87(9):1243-9. doi: 10.1097/ ACM.0b013e3182628fbf. PMID: 22836852.


6 Redelmeier DA, Molin JP, Tibshirani RJ. A randomised trial of compassionate care for the homeless in an emergency department. Lancet. 1995 May 6;345(8958):1131-4. doi: 10.1016/ s0140-6736(95)90975-3. PMID: 7723543.


7 Accessed at: https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=Hj-ZXResT50


The whole issue of de-implementation seemed to be a huge challenge. The new normal seemed to be eliminating people from the lives of their loved ones. This rigid focus on elimination had psychological consequences, for all concerned.


18 l WWW.CLINICALSERVICESJOURNAL.COM


8 World Health Organization. (2016). Guidance for managing ethical issues in infectious disease outbreaks. World Health Organization. https://apps. who.int/iris/handle/10665/250580


9 World Health Organization. (2016). Guidance for managing ethical issues in infectious disease outbreaks. World Health Organization. https://apps. who.int/iris/handle/10665/250580


10 WHO, Preventing and managing COVID-19 across long-term care services: Policy brief, 24 July 2020, accessed at: https://www.who.int/publications/i/ item/WHO-2019-nCoV-Policy_Brief-Long-term_ Care-2020.1


11 BBC, Coronavirus: No hospital visitors ‘broke mum’s spirit’ (June 2020), https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/ uk-england-cornwall-53021661


12 Rubinkim, M, ‘Protected them to death’: Elder-care COVID rules under fire, AP News, 20 June 2021, https://apnews.com/article/coronavirus-pandemic- nursing-homes-restrictions-elderly-2c6b98804219 c731a5e8a9b843594381


13 World Alzheimer’s report (2020), accessed at: https://www.alzint.org/resource/world-alzheimer- report-2020/


14 Storr, J, Open letter: Infection prevention and control should never be at the expense of compassionate care, Nursing Times, 16 October, 2020.


Julie Storr RGN


BNurse MBA MHS Julie is an MBA graduate and graduate nurse from the University of Manchester, where she also trained as a Health Visitor. Julie is a global health consultant, co-founder and director at S3 Global and has worked internationally for the last sixteen years, predominantly as an expert with WHO on the development, implementation and evaluation of global improvement programmes in the field of patient safety, quality and infection prevention and control. She was previously president of the Infection Prevention Society of the UK and Ireland and assistant director at the English National Patient Safety Agency. She is peer reviewer of a range of academic journals. Julie is an honorary advisor at THET and a steering group member of Health Information for All (HIFA).


DECEMBER 2021


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