Specialist Nurse-led Territorial Nosocomial Infection-control Practices in Pediatric Fever Clinics During COVID-19

Abstract

Abstract Background/Objective: Fever is one of the commonest symptoms in children, and accounts for one third of the common clinical symptoms of childhood diseases. Most cases of pediatric fever were related to viral infection, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. This randomized controlled trial aimed to establish specialist nurse-led territory nosocomial infection-control practice, and to evaluate the effect of this practice in a pediatric fever clinic. Methods: Scores of nosocomial infection-prevention and control knowledge of staff in different positions at the fever clinic and the quality of nosocomial infection prevention and control in fever clinic from before to after implementation of the intervention were compared. Participants were the staff of a fever clinic in a tertiary children's hospital in China. We adopted routine nosocomial infection-control practices before the implementation (April−August 2021) and then a Specialist-Nurse-led Infection-control Practices from October 2021 to February 2022. Results: The score of nosocomial infection-prevention and control knowledge of staff in different positions of the fever clinic improved from 77.16±13.372 to 93.51±8.429. The quality score improved from 85.70±3.420 to 94.20±2.191 after the intervention. The difference was statistically significant (P < 0.05). Conclusions: Specialist nurse-led territory nosocomial infection-control practice can effectively improve the staff's knowledge and the quality of nosocomial infection prevention and control in pediatric fever clinics.