The politics and ethics of hospital infection prevention and control: a qualitative case study of senior clinicians’ perceptions of professional and cultural factors that influence doctors’ attitudes and practices in a large Australian hospital

Hospital infection prevention and control (IPC) programs are designed to minimise rates of preventable healthcare-associated infection (HAI) and acquisition of multidrug resistant organisms, which are among the commonest adverse effects of hospitalisation. Failures of hospital IPC in recent years have led to nosocomial and community outbreaks of emerging infections, causing preventable deaths and social disruption. Therefore, effective IPC programs are essential, but can be difficult to sustain in busy clinical environments. Healthcare workers’ adherence to routine IPC practices is often suboptimal, but there is evidence that doctors, as a group, are consistently less compliant than nurses. This is significant because doctors’ behaviours disproportionately influence those of other staff and their peripatetic practice provides more opportunities for pathogen transmission. A better understanding of what drives doctors’ IPC practices will contribute to development of new strategies to improve IPC, overall.

This qualitative case study involved in-depth interviews with senior clinicians and clinician-managers/directors (16 doctors and 10 nurses) from a broad range of specialties, in a large Australian tertiary hospital, to explore their perceptions of professional and cultural factors that influence doctors’ IPC practices, using thematic analysis of data.

Professional/clinical autonomy; leadership and role modelling; uncertainty about the importance of HAIs and doctors’ responsibilities for preventing them; and lack of clarity about senior consultants’ obligations emerged as major themes. Participants described marked variation in practices between individual doctors, influenced by, inter alia, doctors’ own assessment of patients’ infection risk and their beliefs about the efficacy of IPC policies. Participants believed that most doctors recognise the significance of HAIs and choose to [mostly] observe organisational IPC policies, but a minority show apparent contempt for accepted rules, disrespect for colleagues who adhere to, or are expected to enforce, them and indifference to patients whose care is compromised.

Failure of healthcare and professional organisations to address doctors’ poor IPC practices and unprofessional behaviour, more generally, threatens patient safety and staff morale and undermines efforts to minimise the risks of dangerous nosocomial infection.