Taking a Look at Infection Control

Patients have observed several physicians and nurses not washing their hands before interacting with patients. Hand hygiene is one of the largest tactics to combat nosocomial infections. The hospital should adopt a culture of 100% compliance with hand washing. The first step would be to increase handwashing stations and have more quick-dry alcohol-based antibacterial soap dispensers. Making access easier and decreasing the time taken to wash one’s hands would encourage adherence the policy. Furthermore, each floor should track hand washing and report data of potential nosocomial infections caused by improper handwashing. Keeping patients protected from bacteria is important especially when most are in an immunocompromised

Good hand hygiene is the simplest, yet proven strategy to counteract hospital infection. However, the difficulties of achieving good levels of compliance are well noted in the literature. There are several seeming barriers to carry out adequate hand hygiene:

This study was intended to prove that hand hygiene practiced according to the CDC guidelines will decrease the incidence of hospital acquired infections. This could not really be proved in this study since the hospitals were not able to maintain improvement in hand hygiene. Health care workers were familiar with guidelines but significant practice changes were not maintained. Some of the infection rates did improve during this time but the correlation with hand hygiene is not consistent. There were other practice changes occurring during this same time and those changes may be responsible for the decreased infection rates.

To prevent the risk of cross-infection to patients and staff, stringent infection control measures must be followed. Failure to apply these actions poses a greater risk of nosocomial infection to vulnerable patients in the Intensive Care Unit including those with open wounds, invasive devices and weakened immune systems (REF). Hand hygiene has a dual role in protecting both the patient and the radiographer from acquiring and potentially transfering transient micro-organisms. This can be achieved by using liquid soap and water with effective washing technique, or using an alcohol hand rub, before and after contact with the patient. In addition, personal protective equipment including gloves and disposable aprons must be worn to prevent transmission of micro-organisms to both patients and staff during direct patient

Implementation of patient care practices for infection control is the role of the nursing staff. Nurses are responsible for maintaining hygiene, consistent with hospital policies and good nursing practice on the ward and monitoring aseptic techniques, including hand-washing and use of isolation. It is also in their scope of practice to promptly report to the attending physician any evidence of infection in patients under the nurse’s care and initiating patient isolation and ordering culture specimens from any patient showing signs of a communicable disease, when the physician is not immediately available. Limiting patient exposure to infections from visitors, hospital staff, other patients, or equipment used for diagnosis or treatment and maintaining

This assignment shall be identifying the evidence underpinning the skills and professional approach required in patient care. Hand hygiene is seen as a form of action that is done by using your hands to prevent the spread of harmful germs and infections, this action is performed by both healthcare workers (HCWs) and patients before assisting with personal care involving touching. There are many different types of hand hygiene actions taken in the UK, these include Surgical Antisepsis, wearing gloves, washing your hands with a soap or alcohol-based formulation hand wash. It is important to always remain protected when touching a patient, their surroundings or body fluid.

Nurses play a pivotal role in preventing hospital-acquired infections (HAI), not only by ensuring that all aspects of their nursing practice is evidence based, but also through nursing research and patient education.Hand hygiene is widely acknowledged to be the single most important activity for reducing the spread of disease.Personal protective equipment (PPE) is used to protect both yourself and your patient from the risks of cross-infection.Gloves should be worn whenever there might be

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.

In this essay the focus will be on the significance of hand hygiene within the care of patients and problems relating to the compliance of this. The essay will explore legislations such as The NHS Constitutions YEAR, Nursing and Midwifery Council Code of Conduct YEAR and the 6Cs of nursing, focusing on the relevance of these in relation to hand hygiene practice.

Hand hygiene practices are important thing to infection prevention and control practice. As health provider especially ED staff or front liner, to follow hand washing protocols is necessary in any situation. According Practice Standard (2009) four major elements to preventing practice; hand washing, protective barriers, care of equipment and health practice of nurse. Cite from Health Promotion Agency for Northern Ireland, scientists has found around 45% of infections can be prevented by washing hands regularly. MOH (2010) increasing in hand-washing compliance by

To begin with, the correct hand washing is one of the simplest, but most powerful tools to prevent spreading many of the contagious diseases among humans. With proper technique, the odds of contracting a disease from interactions between humans, animals, and from food, water sources, and other items are significantly decreased. The author of this publication explains some of the circumstances when hand washing is advised. Furthermore, the type of water, soap, hand sanitizers and the proper technique and length of hand washing listed in his paper (Eaves, 2014). To support his views, paraphrases and direct quotes from several professor and microbiologist included in his work. One of the examples where he presented a quote can be seen in the following.

The priority nursing diagnosis of hospital acquired infection is risk for any kind of infection. One of the main goals for each patient in the hospital is the patient will remain free of infection as evidence by absence of heat, pain, redness, or swelling in any area of the patient’s body during each nurse’s shift. (care plan book). Frequently hand washing is the best intervention for preventing infection. Hand washing reduces the risk of transmission of pathogens by inhibiting the growth of or killing the microorganisms. (cb)Proper sterile technique during urinary

Healthcare-associated infections affect hundreds of millions of individuals around the world. Hygienic hand washing has a significant impact on the transmission of Hospital Acquired Infections. There are a number of studies that assessed the effectiveness of hand hygiene with respect to reducing or preventing

The need to wash hands has been proven to be beneficial in decreasing Hospital Acquired Infections (HAI) since the time of our foundress, Florence Nightingale was practicing. Though this is widely understood to be beneficial, healthcare providers have consistently scored poorly on studies regarding compliance to hand washing with a rate of 39% on average. In the United States, the healthcare industry has felt an economic burden due to HAI’s which account for the largest rate of morbidity and mortality. HAI prevention is possible with the practice of hand hygiene which is the single most important task healthcare providers can offer. Diegel-Vacek & Ryan, (2016).

Hand hygiene is widely acknowledged to be one of the important precautions to reduce the spread of diseases. Hands should be decontaminated before direct contact with patients, and after any activity, including the removal of gloves. In order to prevent the spread of infections, health care workers must: