Why Now And Then : Infection Control

There are regularities and procedures that aid the preventing and controlling of spreading infection. Getting regular information at work and attending training educates everyone’s understanding about infection prevention and control.

Hospital is an institution providing medical care and other services for sick and injured persons. The modern hospital has three major functions: patient care, education and medical research. The total number of hospitals around the world is estimated to be about 1,25,000. In the United States there are about 10,000 hospitals providing services and facilities for the humanity. There are also more than 10,000 nursing homes providing care to the chronically ill and the aged. Thus hospital provide a great service to the society.

As a leader in health care, it is important that employees have the proper education and training for compliance with infection control. An infection control practitioner should be assigned surveillance of infections, calculate infection rates, and report these numbers to the appropriate personnel. Clinical nurses, such as nurses, should have periodic evaluations to ensure they are practicing patient safety. There are many other key factors that should be implemented in health care facilities to improve infection control. First is hand hygiene; there could be random observers periodically monitoring a certain floor or department for hand sanitation practices. Secondly, is the health care environment. This includes, making sure employees are sanitizing surfaces and equipment, educating visitors and families on infection control measures, and properly using personal protective equipment. Improper use, wear, and removal of personal protective equipment can cause serious health consequences to the worker and the patients, which means employees need be continuously trained and educated on this equipment.

I must take all reasonable steps to ensure that the PPE is returned, once worn to the appropriate location and that the items are not removed from the workplace.

Not Washing hands frequently especially after dealing with any bodily fluids. Staff not staying at home if they are sick. Use a tissue, or cough and sneeze into your arm, not your hand. Turn away from other people. Open wounds not being covered especially on the hands. The incorrect use of PPE or the none use of PPE. Sharing personal items between each other. Incorrect food prep and storage.

HAIs are usually unrelated to the original illness that the patient presents with. Studies have shown that hospital infections increase financial cost of care, morbidity, and mortality rates. Many causes can contribute to patients acquiring infections during a hospital stay. An increase of large number of patients with several diseases into a hospital with a decreased immune system, medical procedures that bypass the body's natural protective barriers, staff can carry pathogens from patients to patients, failure to follow preventative measures to prevent the spread of infection by staff, and a routine use of antimicrobials that creates resistance are just some of the few reasons why HAI occur (Revelas,

CDC highlighted four principles of infection control. The first principle “take action to stay healthy” looked at hand hygiene in particular and education. Second principle discussed “avoid contact with blood and other infectious body substances.” The third principle looked at “make client care items, to prevent transmission of infectious agents from client to client through these contaminated items to prevent transmission of infectious agents from client to client through these contaminated items.” The final principle was to limit the spread of blood and other infectious body substances” (Babbush,

Healthcare associated infection is a more concealed problem that yet no health care organisation or nation can announce to have resolved it (World Health Organization, 2011). In emergency departments and intensive care units 30% of patients are suffered from minimum one episode of nosocomial infections with associated morbidity and mortality (World Health Organization, 2011, p. 3). Strong evidences are available that hospital acquired infections can be prevented and burden can be reduced up to 50% or more (World Health Organization, 2011). Australian national quality and safety health service standard no.3 emphasize prevention and control of hospital associated infections. Most of hospital acquired infections in intensive care units are associated

Healthcare acquired infections are a concern in healthcare facilities. Organizational changes can influence infection prevention. There are several quality and safety interventions that can assist with reducing infection transmission, such as hand washing. In general, the longer a patient remains in the hospital the sicker they become. Many of the uncomplicated admissions become complicated after an extended hospital stays. Nursing home patients are generally admitted to a facility based on overall decline in health, but soon experience community acquired infections from the facility. Implementation of infection control by involving the interdisciplinary staff members can decrease the occurrence of infection.

I determined the effect of infection on patients. There is policy in place on how to prevent infection (hand

1 ‘It is our responsibility as employees to take precautionary measures to prevent and control the spread of infection in the workplace; this involves working safely to protect myself, other staff, visitors and individuals from infections. Some of the legislation and regulations that relate to the control and prevention of infection include the Health and Safety at Work Act (HASAWA), the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health (COSHH) and the Reporting of Injury, Disease and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations (RIDDOR). It is important as employees that we are aware of

The nosocomial infection prevention program has been developed to serve as basic practical resource to all health care individuals, as well as for those who work in the infection control department in our health care facility. The program will provide helpful information, rationales and recommendations in our join effort to fight hospitals’ acquired infection. This program will assist our hospital administrators, infection control personnel and, those involved in direct patient’ care to prevent hospital acquired infections.

In the Past, hospitals have been used as housing for the poor or the sick. Hospitals are also houses for the mentally ill, homeless and those with fatal diseases. This was a place for people to go because it was very little medical knowledge available. Hospitals are for individuals who may need emergency services. This type of facility run test for unknown causes and provide direct care for illnesses that require intensive care. Surgeries are also provided at hospitals. A hospital a place where an individual can try to figure out exactly what health problems they have (Torrens and Williams,2008 pg183).

Sanitation, disinfection, and proper sterilization are critical to the development and survival of health care. Lack of proper sanitation may lead to many WASH- related diseases. While now health care professional understand the importance of sanitation many years back basic sanitation was non existence these times was know as the dark age, medieval times, because of the multiple disease and epidemics spread claiming the lives of more than 60 million people due to lack of sanitization (Baratosy, 2015). It wasn’t until the mid 1800’s that it was discovered that by disinfecting, and sanitizing many diseases, which caused high mortality rates, could be controlled (Baratosy, 2015). We now witness a major decrease in spread of infection when compared to the 1800s yet considering the statistical studies done of the spread of infectious diseases in healthcare facilities due to the lack of proper sanitation and disinfection; there is still a ways to go. In 2011 Studies show that 1 out of 20 patients contract an infection after receiving medical

RE: Infection Control 7/26/2015 4:43:55 PM I agree, Ashley. There has been a lot of studies done in doctor offices and hospitals of what diseases are lurking around. There was even a study done where they cultured what was under the staffs finger