Emotional touchpoints; the feelings nurses have about explaining multi-resistant organisms to colonised patients

Healthcare professionals' social distance towards immigrant patients: A descriptive cross‐sectional study

“…Social distance increases as the level of anxiety rises. 22,23 Harris et al 47 stated that nurses were anxious and tense when giving care to patients believed to have infectious diseases and this caused them to keep communication short. 47 In Dias et al, 24 healthcare professionals were more nervous when working with refugee patients and displayed avoidance behaviors.…”

“…22,23 Harris et al 47 stated that nurses were anxious and tense when giving care to patients believed to have infectious diseases and this caused them to keep communication short. 47 In Dias et al, 24 healthcare professionals were more nervous when working with refugee patients and displayed avoidance behaviors. In this study, anxiety about infectious diseases may have caused an increasing social distance.…”

27. The ethics of contact precautions in hospital care: An interpretive description

“…In other studies, nurses' level of knowledge has been found to affect the care they provide, with ignorance eliciting strong emotional responses ranging from respect for the infection, to feelings of being threatened, and even terror (Andersson et al, 2016;Bushuven et al, 2019;Nofal et al, 2017). Knowledge and understanding creates confidence and security in their role as care givers, whilst ignorance leads to fear and insecurity, and performance anxiety (Andersson et al, 2016;Harris et al, 2020).…”

“…Some examples might include seeking to avoid discriminatory treatment and facilitating patients in having access to the health care that they need, rather than their ability to pay, or their residential address. In the context of Contact Precautions initiated in the management of patients colonised with an MRO, discriminatory treatment might take the form of patients having their healthcare journey interrupted, extended, or halted, purely on the grounds of their colonisation status (Harris et al, 2020).…”

“…Paradoxically, although health professionals in this study strongly supported patients receiving information, patients colonised with an MRO were often not given information about the organism or the required control measures. Reasons for this failure to communicate effectively are varied (Harris et al, 2020) and it should not be assumed that highly educated health professionals have a good understanding of MROs and of control measures (Bushuven et al, 2019;Easton et al, 2007;Kolpa et al, 2015).…”