Indispensable yet invisible: a qualitative study of the roles of carers in infection prevention in a South Indian hospital
Open accessAbstract
OBJECTIVES: We investigated the roles of patient carers in infection-related care on surgical wards in a South Indian hospital from the perspective of healthcare workers (HCWs), patients, and their carers. METHODS: Ethnographic study included ward-round observations (138 hours) and face-to-face interviews (44 HCWs, 6 patients/carers). Data (field notes, interview transcripts) were coded in NVivo 12 and thematically analyzed. Data collection and analysis were iterative, recursive, and continued until thematic saturation. RESULTS: Carers have important, unrecognized roles. At the study site, institutional expectations are formalized in policies, demanding a carer to always accompany in-patients. Such intense presence embeds families in the patient care environment, as demonstrated by their high engagement in direct personal (bathing patients) and clinical care (wound care). Carers actively participate in discussions on patient progress with HCWs, including therapeutic options. There is a misalignment between how carers are positioned by the organization (through policy mandates, institutional practices, and HCWs expectations), and the role that they play in practice, resulting in their role, though indispensable, remaining unrecognized. CONCLUSION: Current models of patient and carer involvement in infection prevention and control are poorly aligned with sociocultural and contextual aspects of care. Culture-sensitive infection prevention and control policies which embrace the roles that carers play are urgently needed.
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The setting also has uncommon characteristics that differ from other international settings.
“The setting also has uncommon characteristics that differ from other international settings.34,35”
From Rationalizing irrational prescribing—infection-related attitudes and practices across paediatric surgery specialties in a hospital in South India (2024) · cites this paper as [34]
The Discussion (p. 17) says the hospital’s IPC, AMS, and patient-safety characteristics may be uncommon in other international settings. The citing sentence presents that possibility as a definite difference, dropping the source’s qualification. (LLM, conf=0.86)
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- Authors
- Surendran, S., Castro-Sánchez, E., Nampoothiri, V., Joseph, S., Singh, S., Tarrant, C., Holmes, A., & Charani, E.
- Affiliations
- Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences and Research Centre (IN)
- University of Leicester (GB)
- Imperial College London (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Charani, Esmita
- ORCID
- Venue
- International Journal of Infectious Diseases
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2022-10
- Volume
- 123
- Pages
- 84-91
- ISSN
- 1201-9712 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W4292685765
- Cited by
- 17
- References
- 25
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 4 · 2024: 5 · 2023: 4 · 2022: 2
- FWCI
- 1.83
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- International Journal of Infectious Diseases (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- UWL Repository (University of West London) (acceptedVersion)
- Brunel University Research Archive (BURA) (Brunel University London) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Spiral (Imperial College London) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Funders
- Economic and Social Research Council (ES/P008313/1)
- NIHR Imperial Biomedical Research Centre
- National Institute for Health and Care Research
- Institute of Basic Medical Sciences (IEC-AIMS-2018-INF, CONT-005A)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Infectious Diseases › Infection Control in Healthcare
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › Radiological and Ultrasound Technology › Family and Patient Care in Intensive Care Units
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Family Caregiving in Mental Illness
- Keywords
- infection control, family involvement in care, surgical wards, wound care, healthcare worker perspectives, institutional policy, South India
- MeSH terms
- Health Personnel, Hospitals, Humans, Caregivers
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