Hospital Acquired Infection Paper

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.

Most of the germs causing bacteria are transmitted to the patient by hands during the patient care (World Health Organization, 2016). The surfaces in patient rooms, the health care workers (HCWs) clothing, and the instruments used by the HCW can be contaminated. Proper hand hygiene is needed to prevent or reduce the transmission of HCAIs in patients. Urinary tract infection, surgical site infection, pneumonia and infections of the bloodstream can be contacted through improper hand hygiene. HCAIs are the major cause of morbidity and mortality (Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion (ODPHP), 2016). These infections cost the health care system billions of dollars every year and several losses of lives. It can have disastrous emotional, financial and medical impact on patients and their family members. These infections jeopardize the safety and care for patients (WHO, 2016). Hand hygiene is the first line of defense against infections. Before contact with patient, hand hygiene should be performed by hand washing with soap and water or using an alcohol-based hand rub. Hands should be disinfected before patient contact, prior to and following the insertion of any invasive devices, before using gloves for central intravascular catheter insertion (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2016). Hand should be cleaned following checking vital signs, contact with mucous

The proposed evidence-based practice change is to reduce the incidence of hospital-acquired infections (HAIs) and/or multi-drug resistant organisms (MDROs) through the daily use of chlorhexidine-impregnated wipes or chlorhexidine soap among patients in the intensive care unit (ICU) and medical-surgical units. Chlorhexidine gluconate is a broad-spectrum, antiseptic agent against several pathogens, such as S. aureus and enterococcus species (Climo et al., 2013, p. 534). Daily baths will be emphasized to patients with the current diagnosis of a HAIs, MDROs or are currently and/or have chronic suppressed immune systems. Furthermore, providing education to staff and patients and their families regarding the prevention of HAIs and MDROs through the use of chlorhexidine bath products will help implement this EBP change.

Healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) affect patients in a hospital, GP clinic, nursing home, patient’s in home after discharge or any other healthcare facility (NHMRC, 2010). These infection are not usually present at the time of hospital admission (WHO, 2009). Healthcare associated infections or nosocomial infections such as UTI, pneumonia, gastroenteritis among them healthcare associated pneumonia (HCAP) is one of the most common, significant and controllable issues today specially in immunocompromised patients. The impact of this infection includes increased risks of patient morbidity and mortality, extended hospital stay, additional suffering, decrease quality of life and also extra cost to treat the infection which burden both for patient

The number of health-care associated infections and patient safety must be addressed and improved by actions and plans that can be implemented as soon as possible. Estimates indicate that hundreds of millions of patients contract these infections worldwide on a yearly basis. This article outlines the need for hand hygiene in order to prevent and control healthcare-associated infections (also referred to as HCAI’s). It states that a large number of HCAI’s are preventable, and measures regarding strict observance of hand hygiene methods must be taken. In October 2004, from all corners of the globe, patient groups, governmental agencies and policy-makers held a meeting advance the patient safety goal of "first, do no harm” and to essentially promote

Hospital-Acquired Infections (HAI) have become popular in hospitals across the nation. These infections not only aggravate a patient’s condition, but also extend the amount of time spent in the hospital. Equally important is the resistance that these microbes are developing against antibiotics making them more difficult to treat. Hand hygiene has been known to be the single most important factor in preventing the spread of HAI’s among hospitalized patients (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2014). Although hand washing is a simple task, healthcare providers still fail to comply with this requirement leading to an increase in morbidity and mortality rates (Chau, Thompson, Twinn, Lee, & Pang, 2011). Additionally, the increase

One of the most vulnerable populations within the healthcare setting include pediatrics. Due to undeveloped immune systems as well as underdeveloped body systems, the pediatric population deals with unique challenges in comparison with, perhaps, the adult population. As pediatrics have an increased risk for infection, one important safety concern in the hospital setting includes central line associated infections. A central line-associated bloodstream infection must be confirmed by a laboratory as a primary infection in which the catheter was in place for greater than 2 days and the line was also secured on the day of or the day before the event (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2016). When pediatric patient’s experience central

The reason for this paper is to find out what hospital acquire infection is, the harmful effects it can cause and the active role nurses can take to help prevent this types of infection. Nosocomial infection is not an infection the patients were admitted with but appeared 48 hours or more during admission in the hospital. The infection is caused by organisms that invade the patient’s body defense mechanism, which can happened by an invasive procedures, cauterizations, or wounds etc.

As a visionary researcher, the researcher viewed the discrepancy between the central-line-bundle guidelines and their actual implementation as a cause of the current numbers of central-line bloodstream infections (CLABSI). CLABSIs affect approximately thirty thousand and one hundred patients in intensive care units (ICUs) annually and cost thousands of dollars per episode (Health Research & Educational Trust, 2017). But most of the patients in ICUs need a central line which is a tube placed in a large vein to give medications or fluids. The researcher reviewed many qualitative and quantitative studies to examine the impact of adherence to central-line-bundles on the number of CLABSIs among adult patients in ICU. All studies presented central-line

Hospital acquired infections (HAIs) have been a topic of concern. Urinary catheters place patients at risk for these infections. HAIs cost approximately 9.8 billion dollars annually; However, Catheter associated urinary tract infections (CAUTIs) are less than 1% of that total (Waknine, 2013). None the less, steps must be taken to prevent CAUTIs. Some of the advantages of preventing/reducing CAUTIs is improved patient outcomes and a reduction in the facility’s costs of treating HAIs. There is some complexity in implementation of your solution, for example, increase in nursing assessment, treatment, documentation, and patient education. When there is an increase in the complexity of a solution, nurses will be more resistance to change. Thank

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

Healthcare-associated infections (HAI) are a leading cause of illness and death in the United States; on any given day, 1 in 25 hospital patients has at least one HAI. The cleaning of hard surfaces is essential to curbing this affliction. Therefore, a survey examining the cleaning, disinfecting, and cleanliness monitoring practices of patient rooms was conducted based on studies spanning the period of 1990 to the February of this year. Reported in the Annals of Internal Medicine, this survey identified eighty such studies, of which 76 were primary and 4 were systematic reviews. The primary setting for most of the studies was the intensive care unit. The studies looked at the levels of contamination before and after cleaning ‘high-touch’ objects such as bed rails, call buttons, light

While working in ICU settings I realized that the patient condition, clinical skills, physical environment and work culture were the main causes for the development of VAP.

According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC, 2013) soil-transmitted helminth (STH) infections refer to groups of parasitic intestinal worms that can live in the human digestive tract. The World Health Organization (WHO, 2015) estimates that these parasitic worms chronically affect over one billion people in the world making STH infections a global public health issue. STH infections are among the most common infections worldwide and affect poor communities, specifically those who reside in developing countries. Higher prevalence and morbidity is found in school aged children according to WHO (2015) which serves as a major barrier to their achievement of optimal health (Scolari et al., 2000). STH infections are considered as a risk factor for the development of physical and intellectual growth retardation (Bethony, Brooker, Albonico, & Geiger, 2006) . The number of people with STH infections are closely correlated with poverty, poor environmental hygiene and impoverished health services. To treat STH infections, many deworming programs have been put into effect worldwide.

Recent studies show that at any time, over 1.4 million people worldwide suffer from hospital-acquired infections (Public Health Ontario). In Canada alone, approximately 250 000 patients every year contract infectious micro-organisms from their healthcare providers (Nagel 18). At London Health Sciences Centre (LHSC) we take pride in providing world class care in a safe, comfortable environment for patients. However, between 2008 and 2010 the LHSC still had between 20 and 30 per cent non-compliance to proper hand-washing protocol (Nagel 20). This data is very troubling considering it is following the launch of “Just Clean Your Hands” pilot project. As student nurses and volunteers of the LHSC team we are equally responsible to increase hand-washing compliance.