Biblioteca Virtual en Salud Enfermería

ABSTRACT Objective:

with the intent of describing the characteristics of cell phone use by Health Personnel and identify strategies to prevent these equipments from acting as vectors of transmission for multiresistant microorganisms.

Method:

to achieve this aim an integrative review of the literature was carried out following the PICOD Method. An appropriate research strategy was developed at each base/repository EBSCO platform, MEDLINE and CINAHL databases and search engines PubMed, B-on and Google Scholar to identify relevant studies. It was elaborated a formal protocol, including studies published from 2006 to 2016. The titles/abstracts were analyzed, excluding articles that do not meet the criteria defined in the protocol. Data extraction was performed from the remaining included articles.

Results:

13 studies met the defined criteria for this review. After a comprehensive analysis, it can be concluded that healthcare personnel'cell phones constitute a reservoir of pathogenic microorganisms that may affect patient safety.

Conclusion:

user hand hygiene, cell phone disinfection and education of health personnel are the main preventive strategies. Technological innovation can be a strong ally for health personnel and organizations by creating new equipment such as antibacterial covers and films or ultraviolet light for sanitary purposes. This review opens the door for further research to be undertaken in this area.