Hospital transmission of COVID-19 has necessitated review of organization infection prevention and control (IPC) policies and practices. This study, conducted before the pandemic, compared IPC attitudes and practices of nurses and physicians, and how these differences affect interpersonal relationships. Both professions described unflattering and stereotypical behaviors of the other (i.e., doctors are unaware or disdainful of IPC; “bossy” nurses).  Many IPC policies implemented during the pandemic, such as encouraging all healthcare workers to speak up about infection prevention breaches, were accepted by both professions, and the authors recommend seizing on this interprofessional unity to continue adherence to all IPC policies.

The COVID-19 pandemic led to changes in infection control and prevention measures to limit nosocomial spread. This retrospective cohort study found that escalations in infection prevention and control practices due to the COVID-19 pandemic did not affect the incidence of other hospital-acquired infections among surgical patients at one Australian hospital. The authors posit that this may be due to high compliance with existing infection prevention and control practices pre-pandemic.

The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in the delivery of anesthesia outside of operating rooms, such as in emergency departments, intensive care units, and makeshift field hospitals. This review examines challenges in maintaining patient safety while providing anesthesia services in nontraditional operating room environments.  

This article describes the delivery of radiation therapy services during the COVID-19 pandemic at one cancer center in Australia, and the risk mitigation strategies used to enhance continuity of care while minimizing the risk of infection among patients and healthcare workers. 

This commentary discusses the role of improvisation in a clinical setting in the context of COVID-19, and how increased autonomy, maintaining structure and creating shared understanding enable organizational capacity for improvisation and resiliency.

This review discusses the most common research on COVID-19 and safety issues to date (e.g., occupational safety of heath professionals, patient transport safety) and identifies several safety issues attributable to the pandemic which have been relatively understudied, including issues around supply-chain safety and occupational safety of non-healthcare essential workers.

An international sample of chiropractic practitioners described actions taken by their practices in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Practitioners discuss using innovative strategies such as telehealth to continue providing patient-centered care while complying with local regulations.

From the perspective of both developed and developing nations, the authors of this commentary discuss how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted access to and delivery of cancer treatment and how the global pharmacy community is responding, including changing and expanding scopes of practice.

Presenteeism among healthcare workers can lead to burnout and healthcare-associated infections, but prior research has found that significant numbers of healthcare workers continue to work despite having influenza-like illness. This study surveyed 249 healthcare workers and 284 non-healthcare workers from 49 countries about their behaviors when experiencing influenza-like illness between October 2018 and January 2019. Overall, 59% of workers would continue to work when experiencing influenza-like illness, and the majority of healthcare workers (89.2-99.2%) and non-healthcare workers (80-96.5%) would continue to work with mild symptoms, such as a mild cough, fatigue or sinus cold.  Fewer non-healthcare workers (16.2%) than healthcare workers (26.9%) would continue working with fever alone.

Using a social and behavioral sciences perspective, the authors present insights for aligning behavior with recommendations from experts for managing the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact. Topics include threat perception, leadership, individual and collective interests, science communication, social context, and stress and coping.

Using marine spill disasters as an example, this article discusses the influence of cognitive biases during disaster response and the development of a memory aid to assist in managing their cognitive biases. These approaches may have applicability to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic

This meta-analysis examined the psychological effects of viral outbreaks on clinicians and effective strategies to manage stress and psychological distress. The review included 59 studies involving severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), COVID-19, Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS), Ebola and influence. Compared with clinicians at lower risk, those in contact with affected patients had greater levels of both acute and post-traumatic stress, as well as psychological distress. Clinicians were at increased risk for psychological distress if they were younger, more junior, had dependent children, or had an infected family member. Identified interventions to mitigate stress and psychological distress included clear communication, infectious disease training and education, enforcement of infection control procedures, adequate supply of personal protective equipment (PPE) and access to psychological support.