Isolation—a patient satisfaction and compliance survey

Abstract

I nfection control is critically important to the effective provision and management of healthcare services. Nurses have the opportunity to practice infection control as an integral part of patient care on a daily basis. However, several studies suggest an overall lack of understanding of the components that make up informed infection control care (Mokabel, 1998). Within the NHS plan there is increasing emphasis on patients’ views of healthcare treatment, in order to try and deliver quality care (Department of Health, 1999). Patients in hospital who are diagnosed as having an infection caused by pathogenic microorganisms are usually nursed in source isolation or ‘barrier nursed'. Isolation nursing involves the use of practices aimed at controlling and minimising the spread of the microorganisms to others. A review of the literature reveals a number of studies describing the effects of isolation, (Gammon, 1998; Gammon, 1999; Madeo, 2001), but there remains a general lack of insight into what being in isolation means to the patient.