Barriers and facilitators to infection prevention and control guidelines adherence: an integrative review

Midwives play a key role in the prevention and control of infection. The identification of barriers and facilitators to guideline adherence is of paramount importance to improve compliance and ultimately patient care. This review's aim was to explore barriers and facilitators to midwives' infection prevention and control guideline adherence. This integrated review used the Whittemore and Knafl method to conduct a systematic search of eight databases for research carried out between 2015 and 2021. Data were analysed using the Braun and Clarke framework and reported using PRISMA guidelines. Four themes were identified: ‘compliance is infrastructure and resource dependent’, ‘recognising and working with what you have’, ‘midwives' fear and anxiety’ and ‘culture change: a mammoth challenge’. Midwifery experience of infection prevention and control guidelines adherence is affected by factors such as resource availability, guideline availability, healthcare systems, socioeconomic factors and midwives' personal influences. Education for midwives is crucial to improve adherence to infection prevention and control guidance. However, education from a behaviour change standpoint has been shown to be most effective and this should be incorporated into training programmes.