Critically ill patients are susceptible to health care–associated infections (HAIs) because of their illnesses and the need for intravenous access and invasive monitoring. In addition, the complex critical care health care environment requires strong interprofessional collaboration, expert communication, and authentic leadership. These strong team skills enable and sustain the collective decision-making process to identify and implement evidence-based interventions that eliminate HAIs. Kelly and colleagues found that nurses working in a more favorable work environment reported a lower incidence of HAIs.

They used the Practice Environment Scale of the Nursing Work Index tool to evaluate the units involved in the study. They found that the areas with the highest scores were in the nursing foundations for quality of care and the collegial nurse-physician relationships. The lowest scores were related to nurse participation in hospital affairs, and staffing and resource adequacy. Nurse manager ability, leadership, and support scored low as well. Focusing...

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