Infection Control: a Psychosocial Approach to Changing Practice

Infection control is fundamental to delivering effective health and social care at all levels. However, health and social care professionals' actual behaviour can sometimes seem intractable to the most rigorous training and promotion of safe practice - including even basic hygiene precautions. Many have identified this problem, but few have addressed why it occurs and how practices can lastingly be changed.This book reaches beyond a prescriptive approach to infection control behaviour,...
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Infection control is fundamental to delivering effective health and social care at all levels. However, health and social care professionals' actual behaviour can sometimes seem intractable to the most rigorous training and promotion of safe practice - including even basic hygiene precautions. Many have identified this problem, but few have addressed why it occurs and how practices can lastingly be changed.This book reaches beyond a prescriptive approach to infection control behaviour, examining the psychosocial forces that affect individual and group behaviours in practice. It gives a strong theoretical framework for practitioners, supervisors and managers to reflect upon and challenge behaviour, before providing practical advice on how to create, supervise and promote genuinely consistent safe practice.This book aims to challenge fundamentally the way health and social care professionals, supervisors and managers approach infection control and hygiene - and in doing so to dramatically improve the health and safety of their patients, clients, colleagues and the public.