Personal Assistants’ role in infection prevention and control: Their experiences during the Covid-19 pandemic

TY - JOUR

T1 - Personal Assistants’ role in infection prevention and control: Their experiences during the Covid-19 pandemic

AU - Norrie, Caroline

AU - Woolham, John

AU - Samsi, Kritika

AU - Manthorpe, Jill

N1 - Funding Information: This research was funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Policy Research Programme (Policy Research Unit in Health and Social Care Workforce: Ref. PR‐PRU‐1217‐21002). The views expressed here are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the NIHR or the Department of Health and Social Care. Publisher Copyright: © 2021 The Authors. Health and Social Care in the Community published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

PY - 2021/11/3

Y1 - 2021/11/3

N2 - Personal Assistants (PA) or client-hired workers are directly employed by people needing care and support, often making use of government funding. In the context of Covid-19, questions emerged about how this workforce is supported to practice safely.This paper reports PAs’ understanding and views of infection control during the early months of the Covid-19 pandemic in England. Telephone interviews were undertaken with 41 PAs between 16th April and 21st May 2020. PAs were recruited from a sample that had participated in a previous study in 2014–16. Interview questions focused on changes arising from the pandemic. Data were transcribed and analysed using Framework analysis.This paper focuses on PAs’ perceptions of their role and responsibilities in preventing and managing infection. Arising themes were identified about barriers and facilitators affecting infection control in five areas: accessing information, social isolation, handwashing, hygiene, personal protective equipment and potential attitude to vaccines.Infection prevention and control are under-researched in the home care sector generally and efforts are needed to develop knowledge of how to manage infection risks in home settings by non-clinically trained staff such as PAs and how to engage home care users with these efforts, especially when they are the direct employers.

AB - Personal Assistants (PA) or client-hired workers are directly employed by people needing care and support, often making use of government funding. In the context of Covid-19, questions emerged about how this workforce is supported to practice safely.This paper reports PAs’ understanding and views of infection control during the early months of the Covid-19 pandemic in England. Telephone interviews were undertaken with 41 PAs between 16th April and 21st May 2020. PAs were recruited from a sample that had participated in a previous study in 2014–16. Interview questions focused on changes arising from the pandemic. Data were transcribed and analysed using Framework analysis.This paper focuses on PAs’ perceptions of their role and responsibilities in preventing and managing infection. Arising themes were identified about barriers and facilitators affecting infection control in five areas: accessing information, social isolation, handwashing, hygiene, personal protective equipment and potential attitude to vaccines.Infection prevention and control are under-researched in the home care sector generally and efforts are needed to develop knowledge of how to manage infection risks in home settings by non-clinically trained staff such as PAs and how to engage home care users with these efforts, especially when they are the direct employers.

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85118484781&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1111/hsc.13624

DO - 10.1111/hsc.13624

M3 - Article

SN - 0966-0410

JO - Health and Social Care in the Community

JF - Health and Social Care in the Community

ER -