Nosocomial Infection Paper Example

Introduction

Nosocomial infection is a major health concern worldwide. It is a term used to refer any disease patients acquire while under treatment in a medical facility and mostly results from a prolonged hospital stay. Infections that are acquired by healthcare personnel and hospital visitors can also be considered as nosocomial (Khan, Ahmad, & Mehboob, 2015). Since the emphasis is given to the setting in which it affects patients, the nosocomial infection is often referred to as health associated infections or hospital-associated infections. Although more than two-thirds of the burden of nosocomial infections is felt in developing nations, studies indicate that it is a significant health issue as well in the United States with approximately 5-10 percent of all contacts with hospital settings resulting in nosocomial infections (Khan et al., 2015). This paper will discuss evidence-based practice for nosocomial reduction, explore combat strategies, prevention goals, and research gaps in prevention methods.

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Evidence-based Practice for Reducing Nosocomial Infection

Product

Studies have shown that health associated infections (HAIs) are acquired as a result of lack of personal hygiene on the part of both medical personnel and hospital visitors (Khan et al., 2015). Due to this finding, it has been recommended that using soap and water to wash hands can an effective avenue of reducing hospital-related infections. In the study conducted by Hovi, Ollgren, and Savolainen-Kopra, it was found that frequent hand washing with soap among patients with gastrointestinal tract infections can reduce the risk of infection by 24 percent (2017). An earlier similar study did Savolainen-Kopra et al. (2012) also indicated that frequent hand washing with water and soap reduced the chances of acquiring nosocomial infection when such practice is augmented with hygienic behavioral change. The findings underscore the significance of hand washing in controlling HAIs hence widely used in clinical practice.

Technology

Technology has played a critical role in reducing deaths through innovation in the use of medical equipment in treating patients and monitoring their conditions upon medical service delivery. Technological tools can be effective in enhancing the accuracy of information regarding the prevalence of HAIs and such information can be helpful in drafting appropriate policies for the control of these infections (Nyiratuza et al., 2018). The study was done by Nyiratuza et al. (2018) investigating the accuracy of hospital surveillance systems in reducing medical reporting errors about HAIs in a maternity district hospital in Rwanda showed that technology can be useful containing HAIs. The researchers found that surveillance systems intervention reduced the reporting discrepancy on HAIs by utmost 6.9 percent. Accuracy in reporting of errors is critical in the sense that it shows the effectiveness of methods being used to control nosocomial infection.

Patient/family

Patients and their family members have an obligation to maintain the expected hygiene to avoid HAIs. Studies have shown that educating patients about the need to wash their hands with soap and maintenance of general hygiene can significantly reduce infections (Haverstick et al., 2017). The study by Haverstick found that hygiene influences the infection rates among patients with cardiothoracic conditions. Additionally, family hygiene is important to HAIs reduction because of this one of the groups of people that have regular contact with the patients. Therefore, an education program must include the family to avoid acquisition of infections from unhygienic family members.

Finance

Focus on finance entails ensuring that the amount of money used goes in tandem with the health outcomes in controlling HAIs. According to Scott (2009), an annual estimate of the cost of HAIs to American hospitals stands between $28.4bn and $33. 8bn.These costs relate to the direct costs for treatment, indirect costs for reduced productivity among hospital staff, and diminished quality of life. Assessment of the financial implications of could significantly reduce the amount of finances hospitals commit towards the reduction of cases HAIs.

Community relations

It is necessary to educate the whole community about temperance of hand washing and other issues relating to prevention of the spread of nosocomial infection. The community members should be allowed to participate in eradication programs of nosocomial infections so that they understand the need for maintaining a high level of personal hygiene such as hand washing (Yoon & Kim, 2013). The community should also be encouraged to use soap and water to clean their hands instead of alcohol alone when handling patients. This should be done after and before handling patients because there is the high likelihood of availability of pathogens on the hands.

Description of strategies to combat the increase of nosocomial infection

Educating patients, healthcare professionals, and family members is a very important strategy that can be used to combat the increase of nosocomial infection. It is vital to teach these each group on the ways in which such infection is spread, how they spread and the vectors that contribute to their spread. Patients, healthcare officers, and family members must understand the need for keeping personal hygiene which includes hand washing using soap and water and the use of alcohol to disinfect any part of the body before handling patient. Patients, family members, and health care officers who have an understanding of the importance of hand washing as a way of preventing the spread of the infectious diseases (Yoon & Kim, 2013). They will have the knowledge that hand washing is possible to reduce the transmission of nosocomial infection because there are no handling patients with pathogens. The rate at which the infection increases, becomes low when people have information about the prevention measures. This is because of the number of people that contracts such diseases are few because it is not easy to transmit the disease from one person to the next when practicing personal hygiene. Education should be based on hand washing and environmental hygiene as the best ways to prevent the spread of nosocomial infection

In most cases patients contracts other infections in hospitals a condition in which different hospital are making attempts to control. The spread and increase of these infections can be combated by taking some key measures in hospitals that prevent patients from contracting other health-related infections that they would easily avoid. The adoption of the listed strategies would provide a solution to such problems if taken seriously by different hospitals. These strategies are cost-effective and efficient and they include personal hygiene of healthcare officers and the Hospital in general.

Personal hygiene is the strategy that the hospital to combat the increase of nosocomial infection and its considered the simplest strategy to use to prevent the spread of these kinds of infections. It is, therefore, necessary for the hospital to incorporate it into its culture because it can prevent patients from acquiring or contracting other related illnesses. Healthcare officers should maintain a high standard of hand hygiene by washing their hands and forearms before undertaking any healthcare procedure. It is also necessary to wear sterile gloves and other protective clothing that would prevent them from transferring the disease from one patient to the next. Healthcare officers are also required to use clean and sterile equipment sand to disinfect their hands before entering the patient's room and when they are leaving the room (Yoon & Kim, 2013). This is an effective step that ensures that the doctor does not transfer the infection of one patient to other patients.

It is also necessary to maintain a high level of environmental hygiene. This is because the most common way in which patients acquire infection from others is through the environmental surfaces. Patients are likely to contract health-related illnesses from the environment because there is the likelihood of survival of some microbial bacteria on environmental surfaces for a longer period of time. Through touching such surfaces by either patients or healthcare officers with either their skin or body, they transmit the bacteria from the surface to patients or to themselves. As a result, the patients contract an infection that could have been avoided by maintaining a high level of environmental hygiene. It is therefore important to keep the hospital environment clean by either cleaning it properly of disinfecting the whole hospital environment on daily basis. To achieve this, it is vital for both the patient and family members to advocate for their own medical safety by ensuring they live in a very clean environment. They should be part of infection prevention protocols where they are required to keep their environment clean and sanitary their surrounding on daily basis. The participation of multidisciplinary environment hygiene group is necessary to ensure there is adherence to infection protocols put in place or else health officers would not follow such protocols when handling patients. It is important to meet with the environmental services and ensure there is sharing of in-house surveillance data would help in relating housekeeping activities with the increase of infection. These conditions help the family and patients achieve optimal ecological hygiene.

To ensure that patients do not contract other infections, it is essential to screen and cohort patients every time. This is a preoperative health assessment procedure which healthcare officers are expected to do to prevent the spread of infection. The patients should receive necessary treatment before undergoing other procedures such as surgery. Patients that have the same illness should be kept in the same ward in a separate room so that they do not infect other patients suffering from other infections (Yoon & Kim, 2013). This prevents the occurrence of cross infections which is common in some hospitals. Because it is easy for infection to spread from one patient to the other when they are receiving treatment in the same house with the same healthcare professionals and when patients share the same equipment, it is necessary to take a precaution as early as possible to group patients suffering from the same illness in one room. Therefore, it is necessary for the hospital to conduct an assessment to determine if all the healthcare officers are adhering to the provided protocols for every infection because there are some infectious agents which are transmitted through the air.

Discuss one goal for each of product, technology, patient/family, finances, community relation.

In this section, there is a discussion which addresses five goals from part A and provides the reason why these goals are vital in addressing the problem of nosocomial infection. It also seeks to explain why there is a need to implement such goals.

Product: Products include soap and water and its goal is to show why it is important to wash hands using soap and water. It is because it kills spores like C-diff which may increase the spread of infection from one patient to the next. When a patient goes to the hospital, it is very hard to know the kind of infection a patient has and therefore it is vital to prevent nosocomial infection rather than treating it. It is necessary to use soap and water to wash the hands and sometimes alcohol can also be used to remove clostridium difficile spores so that a patient enters the hospital when free from germs (Yoon & Kim, 2013). For that matter, hand hygiene is an effective way of controlling infection but it is more effective when done using so...