Visualizing the invisible: applying an arts-based methodology to explore how healthcare workers and patient representatives envisage pathogens in the context of healthcare associated infections

Abstract

2014) Visualizing the invisible: applying an arts-based methodology to explore how healthcare workers and patient representatives envisage pathogens in the context of healthcare associated infections, Arts Background: While efforts to enhance healthcare workers' knowledge and behaviours in the prevention and control of healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) have been considerable, little is known about how staff visualize pathogens and their relationship to HAIs. This study, therefore, sought to explore how healthcare workers envisage pathogens in the context of HAIs. Method: Ten hospital-based healthcare workers and two patient representatives participated in a workshop combining risk identification, making activities and in-depth interviews. This methodology was informed by Sullivan's Dimensions of Visualization framework. A descriptive cross-case analysis approach was used to summarize and synthesize the data. Results: Few of the participants reported actively visualizing pathogens in their mind's eye; however, the study elicited mental images of pathogens from all participants and all were able to create related models during the making activity. Conceptions appeared to be influenced primarily by microbiology and infection control campaigns. Conclusion: Our adaptation of Sullivan's Dimensions of Visualization framework proved useful in structuring this initial enquiry and merits wider application and evaluation by qualitative health researchers.

Mapping microbial stories: Creative microbial aesthetic and cross‐disciplinary intervention in understanding nurses’ infection prevention practices

“…Macduff et al. () have explored how healthcare workers and patient representatives conceptualise pathogens through different forms of risk‐identification activities, and accounted for the envisioned geographies of pathogens (as “monster,” “creature,” “nasty”). Not dissimilarly, in their “Kitchen Safari,” Hodgetts and Lorimer adopted an “upstream citizen science” approach to “provide important insights into peoples’ hygiene practices and understandings in a world characterized by both ‘good’ and ‘bad’ microbes” (), p. 27).…”

Disentangling complexity: a visualisation-led tool for healthcare associated infection training

“…These include training videos demonstrating evidence--based procedures of how to clean, e.g., hospital ward surfaces using their cleaning products and also provide incentives to evaluate one's learning through interactive questionnaires and games. However, there is little available which helps 'visualise the invisible' and which can influence 'the mind's eye' (Macduff et al, 2013) with regard to pathogens and staff behaviours respectively in the above types of training resource, both online and tablet--based.…”

“…The authors have previously described findings from a programme of research exploring the use of prototype visual methods with hospital--based healthcare workers and patient-focused public representatives to help 'see' invisible pathogens in the hospital setting as a means of addressing the HAI issue (Macduff et al, 2013). A key outcome of this research was the recommendation that further development of the concept prototypes for staff training would be beneficial if the visualisations could be augmented with specific training information and scenarios centred around the prevention of HAIs.…”

Evaluation of a visual tool co-developed for training hospital staff on the prevention and control of the spread of healthcare associated infections

“…This was informed by the authors' earlier work which explored the extent to which healthcare staff actively envisage pathogens in "the mind's eye" [ 13 ] and which developed related prototype computer generated visualisations that aimed to help visualise the invisible. One of the recommendations from this work was that "further development of the concept prototypes for staff training would be beneficial if the visualisations could be augmented with specific training information and scenarios centred around the prevention of HAIs."…”