Missed Infection-Control Nursing Care from the Early Pandemic to the Post-Pandemic Era: Policy and Management Implications for Safer Healthcare.

BACKGROUND

Missed nursing care related to infection prevention and control compromises patient safety and reflects clinical practice gaps and organizational constraints. The COVID-19 pandemic intensified awareness of infection-control practices; however, whether this translated into sustained reductions remains unclear.

AIM: To compare missed infection-control nursing care between the pre-/early-pandemic period (2019-2020) and the post-pandemic period (2026) and identify persistent omissions with implications for healthcare policy and management.

METHODS

A descriptive study was conducted among 1570 nurses, including 774 participants in Group A (2019-2020) and 796 in Group B (2026). Data were collected online using the Missed Infection Control Nursing Care Questionnaire, tested for reliability and validity in Greek. Data were analyzed using SPSS 25.0, with statistical significance set at α = 0.05.

RESULTS

Item-level analysis showed lower mean omission scores in 34/37 infection-control nursing care practices, with 26 statistically significant reductions. The largest decreases were observed for glove use during antibiotic preparation/administration (1.493 to 1.070), hand hygiene before medication administration (1.340 to 0.962), multidrug-resistant organism (MDRO) admission screening (1.849 to 1.481), and intravenous access hub disinfection (1.978 to 1.668). In 2026, key residual omissions involved urinary catheter care (31.2%), hub disinfection (33.2%), oral hygiene (30.9%), and environmental hygiene before meals (29.1%).

CONCLUSIONS

Missed infection-control nursing care declined in the post-pandemic period, but system-dependent omissions persisted, highlighting the need for staffing adequacy, balanced workload allocation, environmental support, and routine integration of infection-prevention practices.