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MRSA: A Challenge to Norwegian Nursing Home Personnel

In Norway, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is increasing in primary healthcare, associated with imported cases and outbreaks in long-term care. According to Norwegian national guidelines, MRSA-exposed healthcare workers (HCWs) and patients are tested. Carriage of MRSA leads to exc...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Thorstad, M., Sie, I., Andersen, B. M.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Hindawi Publishing Corporation 2011
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3175413/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21941537
http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2011/197683
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author Thorstad, M.
Sie, I.
Andersen, B. M.
author_facet Thorstad, M.
Sie, I.
Andersen, B. M.
author_sort Thorstad, M.
collection PubMed
description In Norway, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is increasing in primary healthcare, associated with imported cases and outbreaks in long-term care. According to Norwegian national guidelines, MRSA-exposed healthcare workers (HCWs) and patients are tested. Carriage of MRSA leads to exclusion from work in healthcare institutions. In this study, 388 staff members in 42 nursing homes in Oslo County responded to questions about personal experience with MRSA and of own attitudes to challenges associated with the control and treatment of MRSA patients. Half (52%) of the nursing staff were concerned of becoming infected with MRSA and the consequences of this would be for own social life, family, economy, and work restriction. The concern was associated with risk factors like old buildings not suitable for modern infection control work, low staffing rate (70% without specific training in healthcare and 32% without formal healthcare education), defective cleaning and decolonization, and lack of formal routines and capacity for isolation of MRSA patients. Since the Norwegian MRSA guideline permits patients with persistent MRSA infections to move freely around in nursing homes, the anxiety of the staff to become infected and excluded from job was real.
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spelling pubmed-31754132011-09-22 MRSA: A Challenge to Norwegian Nursing Home Personnel Thorstad, M. Sie, I. Andersen, B. M. Interdiscip Perspect Infect Dis Research Article In Norway, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is increasing in primary healthcare, associated with imported cases and outbreaks in long-term care. According to Norwegian national guidelines, MRSA-exposed healthcare workers (HCWs) and patients are tested. Carriage of MRSA leads to exclusion from work in healthcare institutions. In this study, 388 staff members in 42 nursing homes in Oslo County responded to questions about personal experience with MRSA and of own attitudes to challenges associated with the control and treatment of MRSA patients. Half (52%) of the nursing staff were concerned of becoming infected with MRSA and the consequences of this would be for own social life, family, economy, and work restriction. The concern was associated with risk factors like old buildings not suitable for modern infection control work, low staffing rate (70% without specific training in healthcare and 32% without formal healthcare education), defective cleaning and decolonization, and lack of formal routines and capacity for isolation of MRSA patients. Since the Norwegian MRSA guideline permits patients with persistent MRSA infections to move freely around in nursing homes, the anxiety of the staff to become infected and excluded from job was real. Hindawi Publishing Corporation 2011 2011-09-15 /pmc/articles/PMC3175413/ /pubmed/21941537 http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2011/197683 Text en Copyright © 2011 M. Thorstad et al. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Thorstad, M.
Sie, I.
Andersen, B. M.
MRSA: A Challenge to Norwegian Nursing Home Personnel
title MRSA: A Challenge to Norwegian Nursing Home Personnel
title_full MRSA: A Challenge to Norwegian Nursing Home Personnel
title_fullStr MRSA: A Challenge to Norwegian Nursing Home Personnel
title_full_unstemmed MRSA: A Challenge to Norwegian Nursing Home Personnel
title_short MRSA: A Challenge to Norwegian Nursing Home Personnel
title_sort mrsa: a challenge to norwegian nursing home personnel
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3175413/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21941537
http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2011/197683
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