Clinical Performance, Evaluation And Clinical Risk Essay

Through medical advances in technology and practice, nurses have been afforded the opportunity to provide lifesaving care to patients. However, this lifesaving care comes with the risk of healthcare-associated infections (HAIs). Generally speaking, HAIs are infections directly related with the delivery of healthcare and are often caused by viral, bacterial or

Healthcare acquired infections (HAI) not only contribute to exorbitant amounts of financial burden on the healthcare system but also attribute to staggering numbers of

Keeping our hands clean is one of the most effcient and important steps we can do as humans to avoid getting sick or spreading germs to other people. Unwashed hands spread many diseases such as the flue, E. coli, and salmonella. Unfortunately, hand hygiene is still one of today’s most leading causes of infection in health care facilities. The risk of clinicians, patients, and visitors not complying with hand hygiene protocols creates a practice problem for nurses and their patient care. The cause of health care infections, also known as, health care-associated infections (HAIs) are increasing along with the rise of the inability to control or treat infections that are multi-drug resistant. Lack of proper hand hygiene is a major problem in clinical settings sourcing from critical care divisions where the most contaminations are prevalent. This paper will discuss how hand hygiene affects the nursing process and solutions of how to better prevent HAIs within the nursing scope of practice.

Follow Hand Hygiene measures set by the CDC and WHO: Using the CDC and WHO guidelines to improve proper hand hygiene. This will reduce the health care related infections and reduce the transmission of disease from staff to patients (The Joint Commission, 2012)

Elimination of HAI’s are a top priority for many healthcare related organizations and as such, the reduction of certain types of HAIs have been achieved. On the national level, the HAI Progress Report states that there has been, “Au 46 percent decrease in central line-associated bloodstream infections (CLABSI) and a 19 percent decrease in select surgical site infections (SSIs) between 2008 and 2013” as well as “an 8 percent decrease in hospital-onset MRSA bacteremia and a 10 percent decrease in hospital-onset C. difficile infections between 2011 and 2013” (CDC, 2015).

Hospital acquired infections (HAI) will begin to display signs and symptoms within 48 hours. In order to treat the infections, physicians need to diagnostic tools quickly. The manufacturer of new diagnostic test makers, Kalorama Information stated last year that the world demand for testing and treatment of HAI will be over 10 billion dollars by the year 2015, increasing from 9 billion dollars in 2010. Kalorama also stated that HAI has a 5% infection rate of 40 million hospital visits a year, causing 100,000 deaths in the U.S. annually (Kalorama Information, July 14, 2011). Early diagnosis will improve the patient's outcome and decrease the chance of death. According to Kalorama, 20-30% of the HAI can be prevented by the simple use of better hand washing and cross contamination avoidance although the others need more intensive changes such as hospital ventilation systems and using more disposable supplies (Kalorama Information, p. 113) .

This makes it difficult to determine how much HH really affects the infection rates. Maintaining HH is very difficult. This study confirms the observation that institutional adoption of a guideline does not guarantee practice changes (Larson, 2007). The reduction in central line infections and ventilator acquired pneumonia occurred in both high and low compliance hospitals which indicates that there may be other variables affecting the results.|

The most common sources of infectious agents causing HAI, described are the individual patient, medical equipment or devices, the hospital environment, the health care personnel, contaminated drugs, contaminated food, and contaminated patient care equipment.

Researchers conducted a study to assess the etiology, incidence, and risk factors of CAUTIs in the ICU to determine whether risk factors differed based on whether or not the patient had a second form of HAI along with a CAUTI. Risk factors associated with CAUTIs included age, female gender, presence of infection on admission, underlying diseases such as diabetes mellitus, renal failure, heart failure or immune suppression, recent surgery, previous antibiotic usage, duration of catheterization, and length of stay (Temiz, et al.,

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

Hospital acquired infections (HAI) are never good. Moreover, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, one in 25 patients will develop an infection which was procured during their stay in a hospital (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2015). Twenty percent of these HAI are due to staphylococcus aureus, better known as simply Staph (Statisticbrain.com, 2015).

HAIs are usually unrelated to the original illness that the patient presents with. Studies have shown that hospital infections increase financial cost of care, morbidity, and mortality rates. Many causes can contribute to patients acquiring infections during a hospital stay. An increase of large number of patients with several diseases into a hospital with a decreased immune system, medical procedures that bypass the body's natural protective barriers, staff can carry pathogens from patients to patients, failure to follow preventative measures to prevent the spread of infection by staff, and a routine use of antimicrobials that creates resistance are just some of the few reasons why HAI occur (Revelas,

The participating States’ have public health department that were created by mandate to supervise the prevention, surveillance and reporting of healthcare-acquired infections. According to the article “National Action Plan to Prevent Health Care-Associated Infections: Road Map to Elimination.” There is a Federal Steering Committee for the Prevention of Health Care-Associated Infections. Members include clinicians, scientists, and public health leaders who are high-ranking officials from the HHS, U.S. Department of Defense, U.S. Department of Labor, and U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. These different federal agencies come together to discuss new approach to HAI prevention. Patients also take part in HAI prevention meetings (Office of Disease

Healthcare associated infections have an impact on patients - how? Can be prevented greatly with compliance to hand hygiene protocols (REF).

According to the CDC in 2017, the United States has a growing number of public healthcare concerns that continues to climb with the growing population. (CDC, 2017) Sadly, the populations of our country that are already suffering the most are some of the most at risk for these public health concerns due to their lowered immune systems and overall health. One of the risks that tends to be one of the most glaring in the current society is healthcare-associated infections. Healthcare-associated infections or HAI’s are infections or complications people contract while receiving treatment and within the time immediately afterwards from things like surgeries, catheters, and simple treatments. (CDC, 2017) Most of the infections that occur in these