Adherence by Dutch public health nurses to the national guidelines for tuberculosis contact investigation.

OBJECTIVES: To assess whether public health nurses adhered to Dutch guidelines for tuberculosis contact investigations and to explore which factors influenced the process of identifying contacts, prioritizing contacts for testing and scaling up a contact investigation. METHODS: A multiple-case study (2010-2012) compared the contact investigation guidelines as recommended with their use in practice. We interviewed twice 14 public health nurses of seven Public Health Services while they conducted a contact investigation. RESULTS: We found more individuals to be identified as contacts than recomm... Mehr ...