Compliance with barrier precautions during paediatric trauma resuscitations

Area of Science:

• Pediatric Emergency Medicine
• Infection Control
• Trauma Surgery

Background:

• Barrier precautions are crucial for preventing blood-borne pathogen transmission.
• Low compliance is noted in adult trauma teams, but pediatric resuscitation compliance is understudied.
• Perceived risk of disease transmission may be lower in pediatric cases.

Purpose of the Study:

• To identify factors associated with barrier precaution compliance during pediatric trauma resuscitations.
• To evaluate compliance with gowns and gloves policy in this setting.

Main Methods:

• Video review of 128 pediatric trauma resuscitations involving 1138 team members.
• Assessment of compliance with established policies for gowns and gloves.
• Multivariate logistic regression to analyze the impact of team role, resuscitation factors, and injury type.

Main Results:

• Overall barrier precaution compliance was 81.3%.
• Higher compliance (90.7%) was observed among bedside roles compared to non-bedside roles (65.1%).
• Compliance increased with penetrating injuries, highest activation levels, and pre-patient arrival, but was lowest among surgical attendings (20.8%).

Conclusions:

• Barrier precaution compliance in pediatric trauma resuscitations is variable and influenced by team role and patient factors.
• Interventions are needed to standardize compliance across all team members.
• Improving adherence to universal precautions is essential for patient and provider safety.