Infection control Portfolio Activity Report

Portfolio
Topic: Infection control
Portfolio Activity 1: Understanding your assignment topic and identifying keywords
Focus areas:
1. Infection control
2. Illness
3. Hand hygiene
Keywords:
1. Infection control
2. Spread of infection
3. Reducing illness
4. Illness
5. Hand hygiene
6. Systematic review
Portfolio Activity 2: Ranking information sources
Information source ranks: Add sources also
Peer reviewed journal (Systematic reviews, randomised controlled trials, cohort studies, and case-
controlled studies)
Books
Editorial/expert opinion
TV/Blogs
Explanation (1 paragraph description of WHY you ranked the sources this way):
In ranking the evidence sources I used Burns, Rohrich, & Chung's (2011) guideline for
rankIng evidence-based sources. Peer-reviewed journals exist as several types mainly: systematic
reviews, randomized controlled trials, cohort studies, and case-controlled studies. This means that

sources are supposed to be ranked based on the level of evidence that exists and how they fall in the
hierarchy table. At the top of the hierarchy, there are systematic reviews where the authors of such
resources systematically research and summarise the relevant studies that have been done on the
topic. These studies are then used in the review to design a study that represents the highest level of
evidence. The reason why this source is regarded as the highest source of evidence is that they
entail a comparison of different research studies. The second level of evidence is the randomized
control trials which entail studies that are scientific experiments that aim to test the effectiveness of
treatment options in studies. These entail two groups, the experimental group and the control group
where the findings of the study are based on the results that are compared between the two groups.
Randomized control trials are the second source of evidence since the follow up in the
research and results that create differences between the two study groups. This makes randomized
control trials the best and second in the level of research since they have limited bias in the study
process while the participants in the study are blinded so that they do not understand what the study
is all about. The next level of evidence is cohort studies which are based on the identification of two
groups of patients or cohorts which are supposed to receive the exposure of interest and one which
is not based on the patient outcomes. In these studies, the focus of the study is that patients with
defining characteristics are put in the same group to assess the results of the study.
The third level is case-controlled research studies where patients who have the outcome of
interest and control patients without the same outcome and looking to see the exposure of interest in
the study. The other level that follows peer-reviewed journals is books that are regarded as credible
based on the authority of the author and in-depth analysis of the topic. Books are high evidence
sources since they are based on the use of different sources to document the evidence level. The
next level is websites that provide different detailed statistical information from surveys and other
types of studies. The newspaper articles are another source of evidence that can be used in the study
since they are based on personal opinions and explanations in lay language. In most cases, articles
do not verify all their sources which makes it difficult for them to be used as the best source of

evidence. Lastly, blogs and TV shows are regarded as personal opinions that are used to reflect the
views of the people who may be experts in the specific field. This means that the information may
not be fully verified.
Therefore, journals are regarded as the highest sources of evidence since they entail the best
and high level of evidence that needs to be used to carry out and present research studies. The focus
of the review was to mainly find peer-reviewed journals that appear as the highest evidence-based
sources. This means that the search will mainly be narrowed down to peer-reviewed articles. In this
case, systematic reviews are the best since they are the highest level of evidence-based on an
analysis of the different research studies that are supposed to be used to compare the findings of
different studies and thus presenting the best evidence that arises as a comparison of different
research studies.
Portfolio Activity 3: Searching databases
The search strategy was based on searching the databases that publish medical and nursing related
studies
Database
Name
Keywords Search Options
Number of
Articles Found
Comments
BMJ
Infection
control
Hand hygiene 7
Only one article was a
systematic review
PMC
Infection
control
Spread of
infection
6 Only 2 systematic reviews
Cochrane
Library.
Infection
control
Hand Hygiene 5 1 systematic review
Medline
Infection
control
Hand Hygiene
4 1 systematic review
Nursing
reference
Infection Hand Hygiene 8 3 systematic review

centre plus control
Portfolio Activity 4: Using the CSU Primo Catalogue
Munoz-Figueroa, G., & Ojo, O. (2018). The effectiveness of alcohol-based gel for hand sanitising
in infection control. British Journal of Nursing, 27(7), 382-389.
Saito, H., Inoue, K., Ditai, J., Wanume, B., Abeso, J., Balyejussa, J., & Weeks, A. (2017). Alcohol-
based hand rub and incidence of healthcare associated infections in a rural regional referral
and teaching hospital in Uganda (‘WardGel’ study). Antimicrobial Resistance and Infection
Control, 6(129), 1-12.
Willmott, M., Nicholson, A., Busse, H., MacArthur, G. J., & Sara Brookes, R. C. (2015).
Effectiveness of hand hygiene interventions in reducing illness absence among children in
educational settings: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Archives of Disease in
Childhood , 42-50.
Portfolio Activity 4: Evaluating journal articles/ A Review of the:
The authors are scholars and associate researchers from the School of Social and
Community Medicine, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK. They have published several research
studies on a variety of topics but majorly the field of public health. This means that they have
authority on the topic and publishing of research studies. In this case, the study can be regarded as
having adequate authorities and thus good for use within the field of study. BMJ is one of the
leading journals that publish different types of studies on a wide array of medical and nursing-
related topics. It is a weekly peer-reviewed journal and an advocate of evidence-based medicine
through publishing research and clinical reviews on different nursing topics. The journals are
published per topic and even per field of study which makes it easy to search the website. The
article is current since it was published five years ago thus falling within the normal range. In most
cases, cohorts change every seven years which is the reason why it is important to use studies that