Advantages And Disadvantages Of Phlebotomists

Upon observation of the circulating nurse, I noticed that she was very interactive and involved in the surgery. One of the responsibilities of the circulating nurse is to retrieve any surgical supplies that are not available in the operating room and to make or receive any calls for the surgeon. During the surgery, I noticed the nurse call for an x-ray for the surgeon, the laboratory for biopsy samples, and the operating room floor front desk to inform them that the surgery would be later than expected. This is her responsibility as the surgeon cannot break sterility by touching the phone and it is easier for him to communicate through her and not leave the surgical site. Also in the operating room, I observed the scrub nurses’ roles. Before the operation, the scrub nurse opened all of the sterile packages, arranged them on the sterile field, and took count of what was there along with the circulating nurse. The scrub nurse did this because she is sterile during the entire procedure, and once the sterile packs are opened, the contents can only be handled by sterile personnel. The scrub nurse also was ready and waiting at the sterile field at all times to get the surgeon any equipment needed from the sterile field. This is helpful to the surgeon because it enables the surgeon to stay at the surgical site and convenient for when

A total of 5,432 blood cultures were obtained from 2,642 patients and a significantly lower rate of contamination were seen in those specimens obtained by a dedicated phlebotomist. The phlebotomist collected cultures had a contamination rate of 2.4-3.6%, with an overall rate of 3.1% and the non-phlebotomy collected cultures showed contamination rates 6.2-10.2%, with an overall rate of 7.4% (Gander et al., 2009). The difference in the median patient charges between the negative ($18,752) and false-positive cultures ($27,472) resulted in additional charges totaling $8,720 for each contaminated event (Gander et al., 2009). The median increase for length of stay only increased from 4 days (negative culture) to 5 days (false-positive culture); whereas, patient’s with significant bacteremia had an additional median charge of $32,303 and 8-day median length of stay (Gander et al., 2009). This study goes on to state that with the estimated $8,720 for each episode of a contaminated blood culture, the prevention of only five contaminated blood cultures a year might fund the yearly salary for one dedicated phlebotomist in the ED and could potentially save the hospital $4.1 million in excess charges annually (Gander et al., 2009). This literature precisely defines reasonable need for correct collection of blood cultures in the emergency setting and provides evidence for former PICOT question.

These microorganisms are transmitted from poor hand hygiene from health care workers to patients as well as touching of contaminated equipment and environmental surfaces. Microorganisms are most commonly introduced to susceptible sites such as open wounds or other portals of entry by contaminated hands. Infection leads to adverse clinical outcomes and can directly threat patient recovery.

This experiment illustrates the importance of handwashing and proves that hand washing is worth it. Since our hands are constantly coming into contact with ourselves and others, touching surfaces, grabbing objects, being sneezed into, etc., keeping our hands clean is one of the most effective, yet simple way we can take to avoid getting sick and spreading germs to others. Many diseases and conditions are spread by not washing hands with soap and clean, running warm water. “The human skin is a host to anywhere between 10,000-10,000,000 bacteria per square centimeter and since health care providers come into contact with pathogenic bacteria by being engaged in patient care, hand washing can reduce the risk of spreading diseases (page 3).” The objective of the experiment is to test the effectiveness of hand washing and demonstrate normal flora. This report presents the procedures and materials for the experiment, the experiment's results, and an analysis of those results.

Hospital acquired infections (HAIs) affect over 1.7 million patients each year, causing almost 100,000 deaths annually in the United States alone (Johnson, 2010). According to the World Health Organization, HAIs are the most frequent adverse event in the healthcare industry. Fortunately, most of these infections can be prevented with one single intervention, proper hand hygiene (“The Evidence,” n.d.). Four out of five pathogens that cause illness are spread by direct contact. Proper hand hygiene eliminates these pathogens and helps to prevent cross-contamination and HAIs (Linton, 2015; “Hand Hygiene,” n.d.). Reduction of cross-contamination and HAIs improves patient outcomes, increases employee wellness, and lowers health care costs. Adherence to proper hand hygiene is the single most important safety measure in the health care setting. However, for many years compliance to proper hand hygiene in the healthcare industry has been dismally low. New and inventive measures must be implemented to increase compliance to proper hand hygiene and lower the rate of hospital-acquired infections.

Drawing out blood can be very dangerous for the patient and for the phlebotomist, these injuries can happen before drawing out blood, right after they pull the needle from the vein, when they’re transferring the blood into a tube and they forget to throw away the needle. “Even with legislation and the advancements in safety designs, needlestick injuries still occur” (Daugherty). Although, since 2,000 there has been many technology and legislation advancements to the needles, there hasn't been a way to prevent the injuries from happening because they are needles and when it touches the skin with enough pressure it will go into the skin. Research shows that “In phlebotomy procedures, 62% of injuries occur within seconds after the device is removed

Infection on the individual can be a risk to residents, Increase time in recovery, increase length of stay, loss of earnings and cause potential death.

Bacteria are ubiquitous; they can be found on the skin, in the soil, and inside the body. Because of the very nature of this ubiquity, it is important to be able to determine between different strains of bacteria. An example of this is determining the causative agent for a disease so that the patient will be treated with the appropriate antibiotics. It may be important to determine the bacteria in a certain region, because like with enteric bacteria, it is normal to find them in the digestive tract as they are in a symbiotic relationship with our bodies in this area; however, they also cause opportunistic infections in places outside of the digestive tract to our detriment, such as with a urinary tract infection. Some strains of bacteria are common to nosocomial infections, and identifying these bacteria as such helps create the guidelines for healthcare workers in antiseptic technique. All of the morphology and characteristics of each strain of bacteria help us to better understand the role of bacteria in the body as well as helps us understand how they can cause illness, and what treatment regimen to set in place. In lab this semester, a sample of unknown

Blood-borne infections are not spread by respiratory droplets, so the use of masks is not necessary.

Healthcare is an ever-growing, booming industry and as medical technology advances so should our standards of care. Once known as hospital acquired “nosocomial” infections, Healthcare Associated Infections (HAIs) are still afflicting the very patients we are to be treating. These patients could be our loved ones, friends, and family so to say that, “1 in 25 hospital patients have at least one HAI in a U.S. acute care hospital” (CDC, 2015), is still one too many.

However, every NSIs carries the risk of getting a life-threatening bloodborne infection such as hepatitis B or C, or Human Immunodeficiency Virus/Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS). Furthermore, the impact can cause emotional turmoil and stress, even though a serious disease is not transmitted, leaving the healthcare practitioner suffering anguish as they wait to determine their health state after injury. According to Wilburn and Eijkemans (2004), NSIs persist to be a severe hazard exposing healthcare providers to lethal bloodborne pathogens. This is in spite of the important advancement in practice, policy, as well as products. About two decades ago, progress has incorporated the execution of general precautions, and has concluded with realisation of needleless as well as safer needle tools (Wilburn & Eijkemans,

As a hospital, quality care should be a priority for patients that are going to be treated for a sickness, or any type of procedure that is going to take place. A lot of times a patient gets an infection while they were at the hospital, on top of being treated for what they original came in for. Health facilities should be environments of healing, which they are, but they also have tons of various types of germs and infections, which grasp onto individuals that have weak immune systems/are sick. Some infections that are at hospitals are Tuberculosis, VRE, VAP, C-Diff, UTI, and MRSA. Preventive measures to stop the spread of the infections is lacking tremendously in the work and aim to provide safety for all patient’s health. The work

not only harms the patient and places them sometimes in life and death situations but also it can

Hospital acquired infections are one of the most common complications of care in the hospital setting. Hospital acquired infections are infections that patients acquired during the stay in the hospital. These infections can cause an increase number of days the patients stay in the hospital. Hospital acquired infections makes the patients worse or even causes death. “In the USA alone, hospital acquired infections cause about 1.7 million infections and 99,000 deaths per year”(secondary).

Seung, you are right. Some of the doctors assess patient and toughed them without even wearing gloves, or using hand sanitizer. I have seen a doctor toughing patient’s dialysis access site that was infected without gloves and after he finished assessing the patient, he just use hand sanitizer and continue with other patient. Another doctor was checking patient PT/INR with strip and used bare hand to wipe the initial drop of blood with gauze until it gets soaked and she used another. Do you want to tell me that those doctors do not know infection control protocol. When we talks about infection control protocol, nurses need to advocate and educate people on it including the patient, the family’s member and other healthcare personnel. Everybody