Positive deviance as a strategy to prevent and control bloodstream infections in intensive care

The use of positive deviance approach to improve health service delivery and quality of care: a scoping review

BACKGROUND

Quality has been a persistent challenge in the healthcare system, particularly in resource-limited settings. As a result, the utilization of innovative approaches is required to help countries in their efforts to enhance the quality of healthcare. The positive deviance (PD) approach is an innovative approach that can be utilized to improve healthcare quality. The approach assumes that solutions to problems are already available within the community and identifying and sharing those solutions can help others to resolve existing issues. Therefore, this scoping review aimed to synthesize the evidence regarding the use of the PD approach in healthcare system service delivery and quality improvement programs.

METHODS

Articles were retrieved from six international databases. The last date for article search was June 02, 2023, and no date restriction was applied. All articles were assessed for inclusion through a title and/or abstract read. Then, articles that passed the title and abstract review were screened by reading their full texts. In case of duplication, only the full-text published articles were retained. A descriptive mapping and evidence synthesis was done to present data with the guide of the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analysis extension for Scoping Reviews checklist and the results are presented in text, table, and figure formats.

RESULTS

A total of 125 articles were included in this scoping review. More than half, 66 (52.8%), of the articles were from the United States, 11(8.8%) from multinational studies, 10 (8%) from Canada, 8 (6.4%) from the United Kingdom and the remaining, 30 (24%) are from other nations around the world. The scoping review indicates that several types of study designs can be applied in utilizing the PD approach for healthcare service and quality improvement programs. However, although validated performance measures are utilized to identify positive deviants (PDs) in many of the articles, some of the selection criteria utilized by authors lack clarity and are subject to potential bias. In addition, several limitations have been mentioned in the articles including issues in operationalizing PD, focus on leaders and senior managers and limited staff involvement, bias, lack of comparison, limited setting, and issues in generalizability/transferability of results from prospects perspective. Nevertheless, the limitations identified are potentially manageable and can be contextually resolved depending on the nature of the study. Furthermore, PD has been successfully employed in healthcare service and quality improvement programs including in increasing surgical care quality, hand hygiene practice, and reducing healthcare-associated infections.

CONCLUSION

The scoping review findings have indicated that healthcare systems have been able to enhance quality, reduce errors, and improve patient outcomes by identifying lessons from those who exhibit exceptional practices and implementing successful strategies in their practice. All the outcomes of PD-based research, however, are dependent on the first step of identifying true PDs. Hence, it is critical that PDs are identified using objective and validated measures of performance as failure to identify true PDs can subsequently lead to failure in identifying best practices for learning and dissemination to other contextually similar settings.

SAFETY IN EQUIPMENT AND DRESSING CHANGES FOR CENTRAL VASCULAR CATHETERS: AN OBSERVATIONAL STUDY

ABSTRACT Objective: to evaluate the compliance of the nursing team's care practice in handling the central vascular catheter when changing dressings and equipment in an intensive care unit. Method: a descriptive, prospective, and observational research study. Data collection was conducted from January to March 2016 in an Intensive Care unit of a public hospital in Sergipe, northeastern Brazil. Direct observation of the professionals was conducted using a safe checklist. Descriptive statistics was used to determine the process indicators, and inferential statistics to determine the association between the variables, using the chi-square and Fisher's tests, with a 5% significance level. Results: 534 procedures corresponding to the exchange of equipment and dressings were observed, corresponding to 5,073 actions. As for the change of equipment, 2,136 actions were evaluated, most of them carried out by nursing technicians. Of the eight actions evaluated in each procedure, only two (25%) reached the desired compliance, with a positivity index between 90% and 99%. Regarding the dressing change, 2,937 actions were evaluated, all of which were performed by nurses. Of the eleven evaluated actions, eight (72%) achieved desired compliance, with a positivity index between 80% and 100%. Conclusion: the results analyzed are far from the desired compliances, demonstrating the need to implement strategies to ensure the safety culture during the care provided.