Ms Alison Smith1,2, Dr Sally Havers1,2,3, Ms Janice Geary5, Ms Judith Jones6, Ms Debra Vesey6, Mr Paul Simpson7, Ms Alison Pickering4, Assoc Prof Kate McCarthy4, Prof Lisa Hall8, Prof Claire Rickard1,2,4, Dr Jessica Schults1,2,4
1Herston Infectious Diseases Institute, Herston, Australia, 2The School of Nursing, Midwifery and Social Work, The University of Queensland, St Lucia, Australia, 3Toowoomba Hospital, Darling Downs Health, Toowoomba, Australia, 4Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital, Metro North Health, Herston, Australia, 5The Prince Charles Hospital, Metro North Health, Chermside, Australia, 6Caboolture and Kilcoy Hospital, Metro North Health, Caboolture, Australia, 7Redcliffe Hospital, Metro North Health, Redcliffe, Australia, 8School of Public Health, The University of Queensland, St Lucia, Australia
Biography:
Alison Smith is a Clinical Nurse who moved into IPC after a 20-year career in adult Intensive Care. After attaining her Master of Healthcare Redesign, she has embraced the opportunity to work collaboratively in the research space and continues to combine her interests of infection management, communication and patient experience.
Abstract:
Infection Prevention and Control teams across Queensland’s Metro North Health, monitor bloodstream infections (BSIs) potentially linked to invasive devices, but varied surveillance methods hinder standardisation and data comparability. This study aimed to co-design a standardised clinical checklist to classify healthcare-associated bloodstream infections (BSIs) for Queensland Health facilities.
Sequential mixed methods using semi-structured interviews and co-design workshops with infection prevention and control stakeholders at four hospitals within the same health service district in metropolitan Queensland. Hybrid semi-structured interviews were conducted with clinical stakeholders. Questions explored existing practice, experience, and improvement priorities for users. Current forms and processes from each site were collated with interview data analysed using thematic analysis. Following this, two co-design workshops were conducted using co-production principles to co-design a multi-site tool.
A total of eight infection prevention and control practitioners were interviewed across the four hospitals in between July and August 2024. Arising themes included data duplicity and inefficiency, communication challenges and inconsistent processes. Co-design workshops were held in August and November 2024 with a total of 11 stakeholders with the resulting BSI classification tool containing 10 domains. The final version was implemented at the four sites in Jan 2025 using both paper and electronic forms. Acceptability data are currently being collected.
The co-designed checklist is now implemented across the four sites with the final checklist reflecting the stakeholder preferences. A co-design tool based on user priorities will support the standardised classification of BSI. The impact of the tool on workflow processes is yet to be determined.