Longitudinal assessment of team safety culture and leadership regarding influenza and COVID-19 preventive measures: The hospital associated influenza prevention study (HAIP)N

Introduction: Prevention of hospital associated infections requires continuous monitoring and intervention. Team safety culture and leadership are key dimensions associated with infection prevention. Objectives: The aim of this study was to compare team safety culture and leadership in health care workers (HCW) regarding influenza and COVID-19 preventive measures before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: A longitudinal descriptive design was used to analyze data collected in a tertiary hospital in Switzerland across 2 years (2019/20 and 2020/21) reflecting the situation before and during COVID-19. Team safety culture was assessed for hand hygiene, mask wearing and vaccination (influenza/COVID-19 20/21) with adapted items of the safety attitude questionnaire (SAQ, Sexton et al., 2006) and adapted items of the Leadership Practices Inventory (LPI, Kouzes & Posner, 2003). Data were analyzed descriptively with frequencies and percentages, median and interquartile ranges. Results: In 2019/2020 49 HCW participated in the study and 59 in 2020/21. In both years, the majority were nurses, midwives and female (98%), about two thirds were below 40 years. Overall participants rated team safety culture as high for preventive measures with the exception of influenza vaccination coverage. For all three preventive measures there is an increase from 2019/20 to 2020/21 (table 1a). For 2020/21 only, results show that it is easier to address team safety culture issues regarding COVID-19 vaccination compared to influenza vaccination (figure 1 not attached). Perceived leadership for infection prevention by direct supervisor increased across all items during the COVID-19 pandemic (table2b). Conclusion: It will be important to maintain the increase in team safety culture and leadership in 2020/21. The differences in the ease to discuss either influenza or COVID-19 vaccination in respect to safety issues need to be addressed in by prevention initiatives. (Figure Presented).