Mrsa Case Study

There are several important steps in preventing the spread of MRSA: washing hands before and after patient contact, using gloves appropriately, covering any cuts on the hands, maintaining healthy hands, avoiding overcrowding in hospital departments, maintaining a clean environment, and prudent antibiotic prescribing (3). Hand washing is the most effective way to keep from spreading infections. The CDC recommends that you spend 20 seconds scrubbing your hands with soap while washing your hands (1). You can sing the “Happy Birthday” song twice all the way through also (1). If soap and water are not available, the CDC recommends using an alcohol-based hand sanitizer that is at least 60% alcohol (1). This should not be used as a first line of defense. Hand washing is always the best way to get rid of harmful bacterium. Gloves and gowns are another great way to create a barrier between you and the bacteria. Proper removal of gloves and gown are vitally important. If your gloves are contaminated with MRSA, and you remove them improperly, you have completely defeated the point of even putting the gloves on. Once a surface is contaminated with MRSA, it can live prolonged periods of time unless removed through cleaning (5). For contaminated surfaces, you would want to use a disinfectant. Choosing the proper disinfectant, along with following the directions of use on the packaging, will rid the surface form microbes. It is extremely important to follow the directions on the packaging of the disinfectant because each disinfectant is different. One may need you to keep the surface wet for 2 minutes, while the other requires the surface to be kept wet for 10 minutes. If the surface isn’t kept wet for the allotted time, the surface will not be disinfected and will continue to contaminate

These reports of infection and colonization by strains of MRSA in children provide compelling evidence that MRSA strains have gained a foothold in the community and are emerging as important outpatient pathogens.1

Infection control is a central concept to every practice of health care providers. Its main objective is to prevent the transmission of infectious diseases from both patients and health personnel (Martin et al., 2010). In dental clinic, infection control is a continuous concern for its professionals. They have to contact patients routinely and be exposed to their blood, saliva, dental plaque and pus that may contain infectious pathogens. It is important for the dental professionals to treat these fluids as if they are infectious and special precautions must be taken to handle them. In this essay, I will highlight the scope of infection control practices in dental clinics and the ways through which infectious microorganisms are transmitted

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or more commonly, MRSA, is an emerging infectious disease affecting many people worldwide. MRSA, in particular, is a very interesting disease because although many people can be carriers of it, it generally only affects those with a depressed immune system; this is why it is so prevalent in places like nursing homes and hospitals. It can be spread though surgeries, artificial joints, tubing, and skin-to-skin contact. Although there is not one specific treatment of this disease, there are ways to test what antibiotics work best and sometimes antibiotics aren’t even necessary.

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.

Health care providers and visitors are required to wear personal protective equipment (PPE) and follow strict hand hygiene procedures. Contaminated rooms, surfaces, and laundry items are properly disinfected to prevent the spread of MRSA. In addition to policy and procedures, patient teaching is also helpful for preventing exposure and spread of MRSA. As aforementioned earlier, hand hygiene is key to prevent exposer or transmission of the bacteria. To properly wash your hand effectively, first scrub hands rapidly for at least 15 seconds. Next, use a disposable towel to dry them and another towel to turn off the faucet. In addition, hand sanitizer that contains 62 percent or more of alcohol may be an adequate substitute when the individual does not have access to soap and water (Mayo Clinic Staff,

Dental assistant need to follow the universal precaution that OSHA has lay for them to protect themselves from getting physically hurt and avoid getting ill from infected patients in the job. The three main modes of transition when working in a dental office are by open wounds, eyes or mouth exposure and accidentally getting poke by a use needle. Knowing how bacteria and viruses survived gives dental assistant the advantage of fighting them off. Bacteria are all around us; even inside of us, helping the human body work properly. Some bacteria make individuals ill, but good bacteria fight out harmful bacteria making the human body feel better. The more good bacteria the human body has the less room it leaves for harmful bacteria. Not like bacteria

Historically MRSA infections have been confined to hospitals and infected those that generally were very sick to begin with. In recent years, MRSA has started to become prevalent in healthy individuals; specifically those on high school and collegiate sports teams. Studies have shown that the rates among athletes tend to be higher in contact sports like football and wrestling (Buss, 2014). The rates also seem to be higher than in the past due to the lack of policy regarding the infections and lack of people following through on the policies in place (Fritz, 2012). MRSA can be prevented for student athletes, especially if those around them are committed to doing what they can to protect the health of the students.

Healthcare related with infections account for almost 80,000 deaths per year in the United States. Significantly the healthcare department supports hand hygiene decreases the transmission of healthcare associated pathogens and the incidence of healthcare associated infections. These days hand hygiene and improvements in healthcare associated infections is inflexible to verify in health care. World health organization (WHO) highly suggested that we need to practice hand hygiene. This will reduce infection in the health care facility. Compliance with hand hygiene practices among health care workers has generally very short. The main objective of these quality assurance programme is to prevent infection and awareness of the importance of hand hygiene in health care. Hand hygiene is a unlike the way of thinking about safety and patient care and includes everyone in the hospital together with patients and health care providers. Effective hand hygiene practices in hospitals play a key role in improving patient and provider safety and in preventing the spread of health care associated infections.

As nurses, taking care of patients with MRSA can be seen in everyday practice. It can be seen in patients with sepsis from an infected wound, patients who have pneumonia, or patients who only have a colonization for it (“Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), 2015”). Regardless if it’s colonization or an active infection, and the source of the infection, proper policies and procedures are in place to reduce the transmission of MRSA to other patients in the hospital or nursing home setting. This includes performing proper hand hygiene and standard precautions, as well as wearing protective gown and gloves when entering the patient’s room. It is very important to adhere to these policies and procedures and educate others on the importance of these policies and procedures to reduce the transmission of MRSA to others.

The use of patient isolation and contact precautions for MRSA is a controversial issue resulting from evidence that both

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

CA-MRSA is not only cause skin and tissue infection but also causing more severe invasive infection of community – acquired pneumonia among children’s and adults .Study was carried out to detect the clinico-pathological characteristics of community acquired MRSA pneumonia on the basis of retrospective analysis of case records from 2004 to 2008.16 patients with CA-MRSA pneumonia were observed associated with symptoms such as cough, fever, dyspnoea. PFGE AND AMR methods were used .All isolates were susceptible to CN, TE, VA, and doxycycline. PFGE and pvl(using PCR )was performed for 11 isolates in which 9 were identified as CA-MRSA and 2 as HA-MRSA and 7 isolates were positive for PVL genes ( Thomas et al., 2011).

* Hand washing is the most important method of preventing the spread of infection by contact (Ayliffe et al 1999). The Nottingham University Trust Policy on Hand Hygiene (2009) states that there are three types of hand hygiene, the first is ‘routine hand hygiene’ which involves the use of soap and water for 15 – 20 seconds or the application of alcohol hand rub until the hand are dry. The second is ‘hand disinfection’ which should be used prior to an aseptic procedure by washing with soap and water and applying alcohol hand rub afterwards. The third is ‘surgical hand washing’ which is the application of a microbial agent to the hands and wrists for two minutes. In addition to which a sterile, disposable brush may be used for the first surgical hand wash of the day although continued use will encourage colonisation of microbes. The third example is the most appropriate to any O.D.P undertaking the surgical role as it is the best way for the surgical team to eliminate transient flora and reduce resident skin flora (World Health Organization 2010). The first and second are important to any O.D.P undertaking any other role within the Operating Department as this is the best way to reduce the transient microbial flora without necessarily affecting the resident skin flora

This assignment will encompass how the results of the personal hygiene and susceptibility microbiology experiments provide a framework for the basis of the NICE Clinical Guidance (CG139) on Infection and how crucial the reasons for the hand wash protocol and hygiene is in all healthcare settings.