Compliance and infection control guidelines: a complex phenomenon

Healthcare-acquired infection has become a global health phenomenon affecting approximately 8.7% of the world's population. Despite a plethora of evidence-based guidelines, policies and procedures, knowledge of these can be poor, and when this is the case, sub-optimum care may follow. Historically, enhancement strategies have focused on the provision of education by making the tacit assumption that an increase in knowledge will result in an improvement in compliance. However, compliance is a multi-dimensional, abstract, complex concept that is difficult to define. Decision-making is rarely objective and the capacity of personal experience to outweigh scientific evidence is a hallmark of the post-modern times in which we live. It is well established in social psychology research that when faced with complex encounters, individuals turn to simple reasoning rules called 'heuristics', to make decisions. These heuristics are potentially dangerous as they can introduce flawed probability judgements in relation to compliance behaviour. If the raison-d'être of infection control nursing is to attain compliance with the best available evidence, organizations need to reject a reductionist, cause-and-effect view of compliance and acknowledge that compliance and infection control practice is a complex social construct.