There is a lack of strong evidence to support the use of infection control link nurses, who serve as a link between their own clinical area and the infection control team, a study published in Antimicrobial Resistance & Infection Control found.
Link nurses' role is to increase awareness of infection control issues in their ward and motivate staff to improve practice.
To determine their effectiveness, the researchers searched databases, including PubMed and Google Scholar, for manuscripts on these nurses' role in in acute care hospitals. They included research- and opinion-based papers, abstracts, reports and guidelines.
Few studies reported on the effect of infection control link nurse programs in terms of patient outcomes or guideline-adherence with positive short-term effects.
The researchers said their review revealed a lack of robust evidence of the effectiveness of infection control link nurses programs.
"Future research is needed to evaluate the effects of [infection control link nurses] on clinical practice and to further develop [infection control link nurses] programs for maximal impact," the researchers concluded.