[Perceptions of intensive care professionals about hand hygiene compared with observational studies]. / Percepciones de los profesionales de cuidados intensivos sobre la higiene de manos en comparación con estudios observacionales.

OBJETIVE: To identify perceptions and knowledge about the adherence to hand hygiene of the healthcare staff of an intensive care unit, correlating them with compliance data on adherence to hand hygiene through observational studies MATERIAL AND METHOD: A quantitative methodology has been combined, based on the completion of a personal survey, and a qualitative methodology based on direct observation. Units of Intensive Care of Adults (A-ICU) and Pediatrics (P-ICU) of a tertiary hospital. There were 187 health professionals. Personal and work data of the professionals were collected, as well as questions related to their knowledge and perceptions about the hand hygiene. RESULTS: Those 187 professionals, 75,9% from A-ICU, represented more than 80% of the study population, and 91.4% had received previous training on hand hygiene. Regarding knowledge, 35% of the A-ICU professionals and almost 50% from the P-ICU consider that hand washing is more effective than hand friction with alcohol-based solutions for the elimination of microorganisms. They have a better perception that they correctly perform the hand washing (89.32% ICU-P and 82.93% ICU-A), than when we compare them to the adherence rates obtained by direct observation (ICU-P 73.8% and ICU-A 51.4%, P=0.0001). CONCLUSIONS: Despite having previous training on hand hygiene, they have incomplete knowledge and, although they overestimate the problem of the healthcare-associated infections, they have a perception that does not fit with reality.

[Perception of the quality of nursing research in a public hospital]. / Percepción de la calidad de la investigación enfermera en un hospital público.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Nurses, as health professionals, play an important role in research, as progress in care and treatment could not be made without it. The aim of this study is to analyse the perception by nurses of the current research system in the whole of their hospital and, second, study how this perception varies according to their research profile, as well as their level of satisfaction and commitment to the organisation in which work. MATERIAL AND METHOD: A cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted in a third level hospital with a convenience sample of nurses with more than 6 months experience. The Group of Experts of the III Forum of Science of the Lilly Foundation questionnaire was used, adapting it to the characteristics of the population. The purpose of the questionnaire was to collect the perception and assessment, real and ideal, that nurses have on research. Univariate and bivariate analyses were performed using the Student t-test. RESULTS: In the sample of 295 nurses, the perception and assessment of the current situation of nursing research, its impact, its recognition, and its integration with nursing work were well below the ideal scores, obtaining statistically differences (P<.001). There was a significance in the values that recognise that more research is needed by nursing staff, the impact and recognition by management, and synergy with the pharmaceutical industry (P<.001). The level of satisfaction did not affect the assessment, the commitment of the nurses if it influenced their assessment of the research. No differences were found between the ICU staff and the other departments as regards the perception and assessment of nursing research. CONCLUSIONS: Nurses take the research as part of their functions and mention that the state of the research is very much improved. A support infrastructure is needed to strengthen research in care, as well as real recognition by institutions.

Influence of age in the duration of the stay and mortality of patients who remain in an Intensive Care Unit for a prolonged time.

BACKGROUNDS AND OBJECTIVE: The true role of the age in the prognosis of patients admitted in the ICU is not known. This work analyzes the influence of age on the duration of the stay and mortality of patients who remain in an Intensive Care Unit (ICU) for a long period of time. PATIENTS AND METHOD: A retrospective, observational study was performed with patients hospitalized ≥14 days in the ICU. Three age groups were established: <50, 50-70 and >70 years. The influence of different factors on the relationship existing between stay and age was studied. In addition, stay and survival in the ICU, hospital and at one year were analyzed based on the groups. RESULTS: A total of 707 patients were included. Significant differences in hospital stay (P=.183) were not found among the three groups. The older group, which showed greater severity on admission, was the group undergoing the most tracheostomies (74.7%) and extrarenal purification (HDF) (10.8%). When the influence of factors such as APACHE II, pre-ICU stay, origin, tracheostomy or hemodiafiltration (HDF) were analyzed, no relation was found between stay and age of patient. Survival decreased as age increased. CONCLUSIONS: No differences were found in stay based on age, although a difference was found in mortality.

Intention of future donations: a study of donors versus non-donors.

BACKGROUND: Recent years have seen the level of blood donation at a world level come to a standstill or even decline. This situation requires blood donation services to make efforts to increase donor recruitment and retention, as well as to increase the frequency of donations among current donors. In order to obtain good results, it is essential to understand the factors that affect intention to donate. OBJECTIVES: To determine the explanatory power of a set of factors on intention to donate blood, as well as evaluating the ability of current donors to motivate others. METHODS/MATERIALS: A questionnaire was administered to a sample of 1015 Spanish individuals. RESULTS: Results indicate that (i) motivations and hindering factors have the greatest explanatory power on intention to donate, (ii) experience as a donor is the most explanatory factor on future intention and (iii) there are significant behavioural and sociodemographic differences between donors and non-donors. CONCLUSION: These findings suggest that it is necessary (i) to enhance the donor retention for maintaining the donation system using a personal and frequent communication with donors not only to remind them to schedule their next donation, but also to attract more donors; (ii) to recapture temporarily deferred donors, as they are less reluctant towards donation; (iii) to describe in detail how donation affects donors and clarify the importance of donation for society and (iv) to develop member get member programs in which current donors act as motivators amongst friends, coworkers and family.