Development and validation of a job aid: Tool to reduce infections in home-based stroke

TL;DR

This paper describes the creation and validation of an educational tool to help caregivers prevent infections in stroke patients at home.

Contribution

A validated job aid was developed to improve infection prevention knowledge among lay caregivers of stroke patients.

Findings

The job aid was validated for understandability and usability by caregivers.

Modifications were made to instructions based on expert feedback.

The tool standardizes care practices for home-based stroke patients.

Abstract

Stroke patients who are discharged from hospital because of limited access to rehabilitation facilities are cared for by lay caregivers who at times have limited knowledge of infection prevention and control (IPC). User-friendly educational interventions can help bridge this knowledge gap and enhance safe care of these persons.

To describe the development and validation of educational interventions for home-based stroke patients. The validation process enhanced the reliability and validity of the job aid resulting in standardised quality patient care of stroke patients.

Mutasa district, Manicaland province, Zimbabwe.

The systematic six steps in quality intervention development guided the development of the job aid. Graphic designers assisted with development of diagrams and annotations. A purposively selected eight-member panel of IPC expert reviewers was invited to validate the job aid using a standardised validation tool.

The panel agreed that the job aid’s title, target group and media of instruction were adequately explained, and the background could be easily understood during practice. The content was approved with some modifications on the description of instructions to caregivers. Seven reviewers agreed that the materials used ensured understandability, acceptability, practicability and usability of the educational interventions by caregivers, and one reviewer was neutral in commenting effectiveness of the job aid.

The developed job aid addressed knowledge barriers in IPC for caregivers, and the reviewers confirmed that the developed job aid was adequate for effective use by lay home-based caregivers.

Utilisation of this intervention standardises patient care practices.

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