About two years ago, the hospital started a program in which employees serving as “spies” observed and reported how often doctors and nurses washed their hands or “gelled” (used hand sanitizer dispensers posted outside each patient room) when entering and leaving patient rooms. Initial surveys showed that the compliance rate was 31%. Soon after, the hospital began a major push to increase hand washing, including lecturing offenders and promoting hand hygiene through screensaver messages on every computer in the hospital.…
Employees roles and responsibilities in the care industry are all different but the one thing they all have a responsibility to do is they must always be aware of and report any individuals health changes and they also have a responsibility to keep all work areas and equipment clean, tidy and free from infection hazards. They are also encouraged to maintain good personal hygiene for themselves as well as their service users. For example when assisting a service user to have a bath, shower or to use the toilet you must always wear the PPE (personal protective equipment) provided when removing any soiled clothing you must dispose of it in the correct way using the sluice bags that are provided and the sluice bags should be tided shut thus preventing any infection among other service users clothes. Any PPE used should be disposed of in the room you have used and before leaving that room employees must ensure they wash their hands using the correct hand washing method displayed. Another responsibility employees have is to prepare and maintain environment before and after patient care making sure all PPE is worn if there are any bodily fluids in the room i.e. on the floor sink etc this spiliage should be cleaned up immediately using the appropriate disinfectant cleaning products to prevent any infection spreading such as MRSA, C Diff and the norovirus.…
The US centers for disease control has established guidelines for reducing health- care associated infections, in which evidence suggests to be effective. However, adherence to these guidelines remain poor. A recent review showed that observed adherence to hand hygiene was 52% (range 27-86%), and glove compliance and the use of gown or other protective clothing was 62% (range 11-98%) and 57% (range 8-93%) respectively (Ong, Magrabi, Post, Morris, Westbrook,…
Nurses must be able to recognize patients who present with the common risk factors, such as above, the age of 65, on antibiotic therapy, have a history of bowel disease (Higginson, 2009). All health providers clean their hands with soap and water before and after caring for a patient, we can prevent the spread of this infection. Wear appropriate personal protective equipment, and sterilize any equipment that the patient had come into contact with can lower that chance of transmitting this infectious disease ("Clostridium Difficile Infection,"…
According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) (2016) since 1993, hospitalization rates among hemodialysis (HD) patients related to bloodstream infection (BSI) have increased by 47% and by 87% for vascular access infection. Hand hygiene is the cornerstone of infection prevention. Staff and patient education and compliance with infection prevention practice must be mandatorily enforced at all HD outpatient facilities. Dialysis staff must ensure patients are actively involved and understand their role in infection prevention and control such as proper hand washing technique, hand hygiene, vascular access care and wound cleaning, identify signs and symptoms of infection, and be knowledgeable on standard…
Markus Zusak’s ‘The Book Thief’ retains a major focus on the power of words throughout the novel. Following young Liesel’s journey, Zusak shows how the words are used to develop an invited reading within this novel and whether they are the printed words on the burnt and stolen books or the spoken words that are voiced by the characters, the power of words has the ability to reveal humans at their best and worst. This is conveyed through Max’s story The Word Shaker, which proves that words were an integral part of Nazi Germany, how Liesel uses words to fight against the fear and oppression caused by Hitler (when she reads during the air raids) and the theft and burning of the books which symbolizes Liesel’s struggle throughout her life in Nazi Germany.…
Citations: Carmis BC, MD, MSCR,. Richmond M, RN, MHS, CIC,. Dyer KL, MPH. Zimmerman HN, MPH,. Coyne DW, MD. Rothstein M, MD. Fraser VJ, MD. ; Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology, Vol. 31, No 11 (November 2010), pp. 1118-1123.…
A worldwide systematic review found that the incidence of healthcare-associated infections ranged from 1.7 to 23.6 per 100 patients1. Generally, the control of transmissible infections relies on hand hygiene, which is easy tasks to accomplish. One of the main priorities of the United States Healthcare System are the reductions in of known hospital-acquired infections and common antimicrobial infections – Staphylococcus aureus. In order to track and acknowledges the potential outbreaks of hospital-acquired infections and Staphylococcus aureus, surveillance and case-control studies are used to evaluate handwashing frequencies. According to recent figures2, that at any one time between 6% and 12% of hospital inpatients acquire an infection after admission. However, between 15% and 30% of hospital-acquired infection is considered preventable by proper hospital hygiene of handwashing. In addition, healthcare workers’ compliance with hand washing is considered to be poor. As a study suggested, physicians were observed unobtrusively and shown that only 17% of physicians washed their hands between attending to intensive care…
Sanitation –To me the importance of cleanliness, infection control, and hospital acquired infections have made a huge difference in nursing care. I have noticed over the years the emphasis on hand washing, using hand sanitizer, utilizing gloves, glasses, and masks for protection and infection control…
For an appropriate community setting, a long term care facility was chosen to develop a teaching plan. The teaching plan created identifies behaviors in which employees spread infection. The presentation educated employees of the most common types of infections and illness caused by specific bacteria's, and techniques with thorough instructions on how to prevent the spread of these infectious organisms. The teaching plan developed was developed using the nursing diagnoses of risk for infection related to insufficient knowledge. The target group for the teaching plan were the direct care giving employees of the Good Samaritan Society assisted living facility. Specific outcome goals were created in which after the presentation the target audience would competently identify behaviors, risks, and techniques that cause hospital acquired infections. The teaching was also given…
To be able to minimise the spread of infection in the environment, all members of staff have to be trained in all aspects of infection control and the methods of waste management. National standards apply to all areas of infection control and the hospital environment by providing the staff with updated training, carrying out cleaning schedules using the correct methods and materials for each task. All staff members are responsible for reducing the risk of infection and contamination…
This program contained methods and guidelines that will prevent healthcare associated infections. The Comprehensive unit based program focus on improving safety culture, teamwork, and communication among healthcare provider with checklist of proving practices for preventing health-associated infections. This new program was implemented in many hospitals across the United States to prevent those infections. It was implemented in more than 1000 US intensive care units (ahrq.gov, 2016). According to the department of Health and Human Services, since this program took place, it reduced blood stream infections by 41% and prevented over 2100 CLABSI, which saved more that 500 lives and also saved $36 million in cost (ahrq.gov, 2016 pg. 2). Furthermore, the AHRQ collaborated with the department of defense and developed STEPPS, which is a training program designed for healthcare professionals to enhance patient’s safety, communication and teamwork skills (ahrq.gov, 2016. Pg.3), and since then AHRQ trained about 1500 organizations. They also provide nation wide free trainings for healthcare providers. Furthermore, they partnered up with CMS to expand the training of the healthcare providers in order to improve the quality of healthcare across the United…
The long-time healthcare problem I want to pay attention to is hospital acquired infections secondary to poor hand hygiene. Hospital acquired infections are the ones that occurred 48 hours after admission to the hospital, up to 3 days after discharge, up to 30 days after the operation, and in healthcare facility when a patient was admitted for reasons other than infection. In the United States, it has been estimated that 9.2 out of every 100 patients develop a hospital-acquired infection (Hospital-Acquired (Nosocomial) Infections, 2016). Few examples of those infections are urinary tract infections, surgical site infections, pneumonia, and bloodstream infection. An estimated 40 percent of the hospital-acquired infections are caused by poor…
Risk managers are very involved in the care of every patients stay from beginning to end but also it has the hospitals best interest. First, one of the most important challenges the organization faces in controlling infectious diseases is hand washing. There are many types of community acquired infections which increase the risk to inpatient populations as individuals are admitted to the hospital. Requiring strict hand…
References: Carol Benton, B. R. (2007). Hand Hygiene-Meeting the JCAHO Safety Goal: Can Compliance With CDC Hand Hygiene Guidelines be Improved by a Surveillance and Educational Program? Plastic Surgical Nursing, 40-44.…