Medication Cart And The Incidence Of Infection

As a critical care nurse the concern with medication shortages really hits home. In my current practice I have been asked by our hospital pharmacy to decrease the amount of Ativan given to a patient because the supply was low and they did not have any more to restock our omnicell. I am unsure the reason behind this particular shortage, but several other drugs we currently use are in low supply, most importantly epinephrine. Epinephrine is a life-saving medication, not only for supply on our code carts for cardiac arrest, but available in injection form for people with severe allergies. The shortage affects everyone, from oncology patients to cardiac patients. Recent policy changes have been made in order to correct the major shortages to help keep these life-saving drugs on the market and available to the people that need them.

Many instances have been noted that healthcare providers are bringing the infection to the patients and not the patients bring the infection to the staff. Furthermore, It is well documented that nosocomial infection occurs (Rice, 2010) and hospitalized individuals face more complications and greater mortality from influenza. Healthcare providers are indirectly causing undo harm to patients that are more susceptible to infections such as influenza. “In nursing home settings, vaccination of healthcare workers has been shown to decrease morbidity and mortality among nursing home residents” (Babcock, et al., 2010, p. 459). One study suggests that there is a higher rate of occurrence of influenza among healthcare providers than residents. “In elder-care settings, influenza among staff precedes illness among residents, suggesting that health care workers introduce the virus into the setting” (Anikeeva, Braunack-Mayer, & Rogers, 2009, p. 25).

Viruses such as colds and the flu can spread rapidly in the social care settings

To increase patient and hcw safety, health care workers should be mandate to get vaccination. Hcw are more at risk to get infection because of their contact with patient and then to spread it to patients, specially patients who are susceptible to the infection (CITATION). Influenza symptoms appears within 1-4 days. Before even hcw workes know that they have influenza infection and they are contagious, they may spread the infection to patient . Also, if hcw are infected, it will cause impact on their mental and physical functioning. Two randomly conducted studies have supported that mandatory influenza vaccination for hcw helped in decreasing death rate upto 44% in nursing home residents (Ottenberg, 2011). Potter et. al. identified that because of increased staff vaccination mortality rate reduced from 17% to 10% (Suillivan, 2010). The other fact which can effect patient safety due to low rate of vaccination is absenteeism of hcw during influenza epidemic.

In this report I will discuss the policy and procedures at a nursing home. I will be specifically looking at infection control during the course of a medication round.

Fore, A., Sculli, G., Albee, D., Neily, J. (2013). Improving patient safety using the sterile cockpit principle during medication administration: a collaborative, unit based project. Journal of Nursing Management, 21(1), 106-111.

Stethoscope is one of the most commonly used medical devices on a clinical setting, the environment of which is often represented a potential vector for hospital acquired infections. Scholars highlights that the sterilization of invasive equipments and the disinfection of any kind of devices before the interventions are generally ignored (Kilic et al., 2011). Among those devices, stethoscope is the widely-used equipment with the most possibility of contamination of transmitted organism. Researchers emphasize that the increasing proliferation of infection required diligent hygiene of both hands and instruments between patients to reduce hospital acquired infections (Shaw and Cooper, 2014). Therefore, a survey is being conducted with a brief nurse-directed questionnaire to review perceived reasons for stethoscope antisepsis non-compliance and stethoscope antisepsis compliance. The purpose of this project is to improve compliance with stethoscope care before and after patient contact on the Acute Medical and Progressive Care Unit (D6/5) at University Hospital in Madison, Wisconsin. The following

Elderly patients residing in long-term care facilities are vulnerable to influenza outbreaks which might cause widespread illness with a high fatality rate. To fight off outbreaks, all long-term care facility residents and health care personnel must be vaccinated against

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.

In this article, the National Patient Safety Goal 07.01.01 addresses the reduction of hospital-acquired infections (Joint Commission, 2008). The Joint Commission (2008), the World Health Organization (WHO, 2009), the CDC (2006), and the Society for Healthcare

Although there are many types of outpatient facilities, such as walk-in clinics, radiology centers, cardiac catheterization and dialysis centers and outpatient surgical centers all need to take precautions to prevent infections. One way that outpatient facilities use statistics is by tracking infection rates to better understand how infections are spread and to educate providers on preventing the spread of infections.

The ultimate goal of research is to develop, refine, and expand a body of knowledge. This was evident from the six (6) articles which I had chosen for my research topic. The information provided by the above studies gave me a better understanding of how vital research is in this new eon. All the authors provided different views and opinions on the research topic, allowing me to obtain imperative knowledge. It was understood that hand hygiene practices is fundamental among nurses and members of the health care team in order to provide effective and efficient health care. The basic nursing curricula should really focus a bit more on hand hygiene compliance (Kelcíkova, S., Skodova, Z., & Straka, S.,2012) because hand washing is a primary way

Infectious diseases have a great impact on morbidity and mortality of people living in long-term care facilities (LTCFs). It is reported that 1 to 3 million serious infections and several thousand outbreaks occur every year in LTCFs.1 Utsumi and colleagues showed in their review paper that influenza was the most reported outbreaks in LTCFs.2 The important source of influenza is infected person. An infected but asymptomatic person can shed the virus and be infectious.3 Influenza vaccination is the most effective way to prevent outbreaks. Older people, however, are less likely to be protected by vaccination because the antibody response in older people is considerably lower than in younger people.4 Older people living in LTCFs have frequent

At this time, the design team interviewed over 100 healthcare workers to devise and implement the first prototype. Although the design was successful at this stage, it underwent three further rounds of feedback which continued to refine the “CareCentre” design. The testing stage was then implemented by asking nurses to perform common clinical tasks in a simulated ward environment. Those with access to the “CareCentre” utilised the WHO moments of hand hygiene more often and more correctly used gloves and aprons, than those without.

One recommendation for the healthcare setting is to invest in a hand hygiene reminder system. In this system, the employee would wear a lighted badge that senses when hand hygiene was completed, reminds with a sound when they forget and reports if they are noncompliant (O’Reilly, Kevin B.). Without proper hand hygiene and infection control, patients can get infections that could have previously been avoided (“Compliance: Two Hands at a Time”). These are called hospital-acquired infections, or healthcare-associated infections (HAI’s), and can lead to death, especially in hospitalized patients whose health is already compromised (“Forget to wash? Devices track hand washing adherence in hospitals”). Patient safety is a priority. HAI’s are prevented and safety is maintained by incorporating this hand hygiene reminder system into the infection control practices at Park Nicollet’s Methodist Hospital. This recommendation pertains to people such as nurses and doctors who provide direct patient care and also to the leaders of Park Nicollet who make the executive decisions. As an infection control nurse, I provide evidence of why this is important for the healthcare team. The role of the audience is to make a decision about whether this is something the hospital needs and support in the decision that is made. This report studies how the hand hygiene reminder systems work, how the advantages