Infection control practices among EMS providers in prehospital settings: a scoping review of compliance and barriers

Infection control practices are essential in any healthcare setting, including the prehospital setting, to protect both patients and healthcare providers. Yet, many unknowns exist about these practices in EMS settings. This review explores infection control practices in emergency medical services by exploring compliance rates and barriers documented in the published literature.

To identify relevant articles, a comprehensive search of the databases Embase, PubMed, and CINAHL was conducted. Furthermore, a hand-search of the reference lists from the included studies was performed to identifyadditional relevant research. The review followed the Arksey and O'Malley framework and was reported in accordance with PRISMA-ScR guidelines.

A total of 184 records were initially identified-159 through database searches and 25 through hand-searching the reference lists. After removing duplicates and excluding non-English records and those published outside the specified time frame, 162 records remained. Title and abstract screening narrowed these down to 52 articles for full-text review, of which 16 met the inclusion criteria and were included in the final review.

The findings indicate that compliance rate with infection control practices among EMS providers falls short of the desired levels. However, most of the included studies utilized self-reported methods to assess compliance, which may not accurately reflect actual practices. Therefore, future research should incorporate direct observations to gain a clearer understanding of current practices. Furthermore, this review identified that the barriers faced by EMS providers are complex and multifaceted, necessitating a comprehensive strategy to effectively address these challenges.