How does innovative technology impact nursing in infectious diseases and infection control? A scoping review.
Fanyu Huang, Philippe Brouqui, Sophia Boudjema
PMID 33765353WHAT IT FOUND
Technology is being used by nurses for hand hygiene, patient monitoring and patient education, but this review of 77 studies does not show which tools improve patient care.
Key findings
01The review included 77 articles from 23 countries, and most studies focused on infection prevention and control and on healthcare-associated infections.
02The review listed IoT and wireless (23 studies), AI (20 studies) and ICT (14 studies) among the technology categories.
03Hand hygiene monitoring results were mixed: some systems improved activity, but some measured compliance was lower than human observation and long-term sustainability was uncertain.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
It is a scoping review, not a review of whether tools work, and it did not assess risk of bias. The search was limited to English articles published from March 2014 to March 2020, so other relevant studies may be missing. Most studies were from developed countries, so the results may not fit all settings. Publication bias is possible because negative studies are less likely to be published. When a study used several technologies, the review counted only the dominant one, which may distort trends.
Declared interests
The authors declared no conflicts of interest. The work was supported by Méditerranée infection.
The easy way to misread this
Do not treat the mapped technologies as proven to improve patient care. The review did not assess risk of bias, and results were mixed or uncertain.