Effect Of Staff Nurse Education Intervention On Wound Infections

For clinical week 9, I was assigned to the UMC Wound Care Clinic to view a different field of nursing. As soon as I arrived at the clinic the nurse told me that I could bounce around from patient room to patient room to view as many wounds and burns as possible. The first patient room that I went into was a young Hispanic man who had an infection on his right lateral thigh area that spread from the popliteal area to the greater trochanter. When I asked the patient what had happened he told me he was injured at work and the injury got infected, which he never went to the doctor to have it evaluated. So, basically the infection was eating away at his skin and muscles. The patient has to come to the wound clinic every day to get dressing changes.

In recent years, surgical site infections are verified as one of the most errors that are common in the healthcare; however, they are also preventable. These research papers will synthesis information about surgical infections, patient experience, hospital-acquired conditions and achievement of expected treatment for specific clinical diagnoses. A surgical site infection is an infected condition in the body after surgery has occurred. Surgical site infections are caused by germs, called bacteria. Different types of bacteria from the environment may cause a delay in healing. The infection may come from surgical tools or bacteria on the skin if it is not clean correctly. Healthcare professionals use certain guidelines and

During this talk, Dr. Shah discussed his experience identifying and diagnosing prosthetic infections. Then he starts pointing out the current challenges he has been able to identify and presented a thoughtful literature review about common practices during the identification of join infections. The overall conclusion was that there is no test that allow to accurate identify join infection and this also affects treating the patient. Patients that undergo join surgery and get back with swelling, change in color in join area, and pain are part of the group easy to diagnose yet with a significant infection difficult to treat. However, when patients get back to the doctor early on during the infection when the signs are not that obvious, all comes down to clinical judgement.

One hundred fifty-seven thousand, five hundred – according to Infection Prevention Consultant Victoria Russo, 157,500 is the estimated number of hospital-associated, surgical site infections (SSIs) that occur annually (2017). Why does it matter? Shockingly, the number of deaths linked to SSIs annually is estimated to be around 8,205 (Russo, 2017). This means, on average, 5% of the individuals plagued by an SSI will pass away due to complications related to the acquired infection. With statistics like these, it’s hard to ignore the fact that surgical site infections are a significant problem in healthcare.

Hospitals report data to The Centers for Disease Control and based on the research and viewing of the data they have concurred that “Surgical site infections are the second most common type of adverse events occurring in hospitalized patient. While advances have been made in infection control practices, including improved operating room ventilation, sterilization methods, barriers, surgical technique, and availability of antimicrobial prophylaxis, SSIs remain a

They are amongst the primary causes of avoidable deaths in the United States and are associated with a considerable increment in the cost of health care each year. The primary most effective means to decrease hospital acquired infection is hand hygiene, yet researches show that most health care providers are reluctant for hand washing. Nurses are the ones who have a close contact with the patient than any other health care provider. The nurse is basically a patient promoter that puts him/her in an exceptional position. Therefore, the nurse has the unique opportunity to decrease the potential for hospital-acquired infections. He/she must be certain that all aspects of his/her nursing practice are based on the evidence, researches and education. He/she can smooth the progress of patient recovery and minimize complications related to infections by applying the skills and knowledge of nursing

Patient flow upon arrival to the emergency department is clearly laid out by the Office of the Auditor General of Ontario (2010) in the following order: triage and registration; nurse assessment; physical assessment accompanied by the use of diagnostic and laboratory services; treatment; and decision on whether the patient is discharged home, or admitted or transferred to another hospital. Hospital admission is based on emergency physicians’ clinical judgment and is only reserved for patients who are suffering from life-threatening situations that require intensive medical attention (Office of the Auditor General of Ontario, 2010). Upon admission, Rick’s symptoms of fever, rash, and pruritus were consistent with the symptoms of a localized pocket infection (Tarakaji et al., 2010). Infected cardiac implantable electrical devices (CIED) put patients at a high risk for suffering catastrophic clinical complications including sepsis and secondary to multiple organ failures, which can result in death (Deharo et al., 2012; Uslan et al., 2010 ). Therefore, immediate hospital admission is critical to Rick because CIED failure requires competent health professionals, such as physicians and nurses, to medically manage his infection (Padeletti et al., 2011). The cardiologist ordered a blood culture for Rick and the result was positive for Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, which is the common cause of monomicrobial CIED infection

Tartari, E., & Mamo, J. (2011). Pre-educational intervention survey of healthcare practitioners' compliance with infection prevention measures in cardiothoracic surgery: Low compliance but internationally comparable surgical site infection rate. Journal Of Hospital Infection, 77(4), 348-351 4p.

Research shows that Surgical site infections are preventable. According to the CDC, hand hygiene is the simplest approach to preventing the spread of infections and needs to be incorporated into the culture of the organization. Ensuring the use of infection control prevention is an important component of nursing care. Infection control prevention policies must be communicated undoubtedly to all employees. Staffers who do not comply must be re-educated to ensure that all are complying. Speaking up and pointing out that a nurse forgot to wash his or her hands, or notifying the surgical team that surgical instruments were not adequately cleaned may seem like small issues; but at the same time, not acknowledging a break in a sterile technique could mean the difference between life and death for a patient. One hospital that was struggling with high levels of infection related to surgical procedures, implemented a pre-procedure huddle as a team. This innovate way decreased the spread of infection and was a great way to improve the quality of care for patients. As mandated by the Joint commission, infection prevention personnel should provide multidisciplinary education on SSI prevention, to all team members, including

Infective endocarditis is an infection of microorganisms, whether it be bacterial or viral, which form colonies within the endothelial lining of the heart tissue. This initiates an immune response that causes the infected sites to grow. Figure 1 8 shows vegetations on the aortic valve which prevent it from functioning properly. Without the ability to fully seal during diastole, blood is pulled back through the aortic valve from the aorta. This disrupts the pressure in the left ventricle in such a way that creates unnecessary stress on the muscle. Infective endocarditis that is present on the right side of the heart (including the aortic valve) is of highest incidence within the population of recreational intravenous drug users at 46% - 78% of reported cases. 9 The risk of infective endocarditis causing vegetation on and around the aortic valve increases after valve replacement surgery. A study done in Australia observed 2443 aortic valve replacement surgeries, taking into consideration their pre-and-post-operation condition. Of said patients, 3.7% developed infective endocarditis. All valve prostheses were either of allograft (human), xenograft (porcine, bovine, or equine), or mechanical design (composite synthetics), the xenograft being the most popular.

The primary goal of the surgical team is to prevent the spreading of infectious diseases in the operating theatre and the surgical area. Some of those goals include the patient risk assessment, cleaning of the surrounding area and the environment, and the most important sterilising surgical instruments and gowns and disinfecting the surgical theatre after and before the

In 1992, CDC revised its definition of ‘wound infection’, by creating the definition, ‘surgical site infection’, to prevent the confusion between the infection of a surgical incision and the infection of a traumatic wound (Horan et al 1992). A precise definition of surgical site infection is vital for personnel measuring infection rates (WHO 2009). The definitions of surgical site infection may vary between research studies but are commonly based on those described by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention although other valid measures have been used (NICE 2008). The CDC definition describes three levels of SSI:

Of the ten research articles, seven showed clinical evidence that chlorhexidine was superior at reducing the rates of SSI’s, two articles supported the use of chlorhexidine without any significant evidence of advantage, and only one study supported the use of povidone iodine. The study favoring povidone iodine included general surgery of clean, clean-contaminated, contaminated wounds and dirty wounds. The results showed there was only a 0.7% higher infection rate with chlorhexidine and it was later found that the chlorhexidine group had a higher number of dirty wounds, which could be a contributing factor to the increase infection rate (p. 4).

I have neither given or received, nor have I tolerated others ' use of unauthorized aid.

Those who incorporate the best practice standards can reduce the morbidity and mortality associated with surgical site infections.