Hospital acquired infection prevention

Document Type:Essay

Subject Area:Nursing

Document 1

This assignment will explore and critically evaluate hospital-acquired infections in the hospital settings; the prevalence of nosocomial infections in Australia and the role of inter-professional team collaboration in preventing nosocomial infections through ensuring adherence to hand hygiene and monitoring of antimicrobial use in the care settings. A definition of an adverse event An adverse event is an injury or unwanted result that did not exist at the point of admission or treatment that occurs to a patient following a healthcare intervention or due to lack of an appropriate healthcare intervention which results into prolonged hospital stay or disability or both at the time of discharge. Adverse events in patients necessitate additional resources in the monitoring of the patient, treatment and may result in death or disability in patients.

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Patient adverse events result in increased costs of care for patients, increases patient dependency and strain on the healthcare system. Hospital-acquired infections are infections that are acquired by the patients during their period of hospitalization and that did not present at admission (Khan, Baig & Mehboob, 2017). The study estimates the incidence of nosocomial infections in Australia could be way above 165,000 per year making nosocomial infections the most common complication in the health care system (Mitchell, Shaban, MacBeth, Wood & Russo, 2017). The main source of the infections was the urinary system infections, Clostridium difficile, surgical site infections respiratory infections Staphylococcus aureus and bacteremia (Mitchell, Shaban, MacBeth, Wood & Russo, 2017). Effects or consequences on the patient, Healthcare-associated infections impact on patient care and have a strong bearing on the healthcare delivery system (Fernando, Gray & Gottlieb, 2017).

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Hospital-acquired infections have serious effects on the patient, the patient families, and the healthcare system. The patient is the center-stage in hospital-acquired infections bearing much of its effects. Hospital-acquired infections can result in long-term dependency due to disabilities caused or death of loved ones. health care system The healthcare system is not left out by the effects of hospital-acquired infections. Hospital-acquired infections increase the strain on the cost and human resources required to manage the infections. Increased patient stay in the hospitals puts a strain on the resources available for patient care. The use of prospective payment mechanisms which are based on diagnosis based groups, makes the cost of hospital-acquired infections a cost borne by the hospital itself and not by the insurer.

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Active monitoring of antibiotic use within the hospital setup is an integral part of preventing the development of drug-resistant microbial infections such as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). Monitoring of antimicrobial usage also plays a critical role in the regulation of the spread of Clostridium difficile which commonly develops as a result of clearance of the bacterial normal flora by overuse of antibiotics. Antibiotic stewardship within the hospital care system plays a critical role and involves an interdisciplinary and inter-professional team to manage and implement. Managing the antibiotic use within the hospital settings involves the care team which comprises of the infection control team, the infection control physician, hospital pharmacist and the epidemiological department. Nurses being the patient custodian plays a crucial role in the team through linking the inter-professional team to the patient and ensuring that antibiotic administration policies and procedures are developed and adhered to.

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It has been established that there commonly exists prejudice between the physicians and nurses for example in the healthcare settings (Elsous, Radwan & Mohsen, 2017). Such prejudice may lead to a breakdown in nurse-led team sensitization or training on hand hygiene and presentation of clinical updates on the intervention. Lack of a properly constituted inter-professional team may also limit implementation of interventions. In implementing antimicrobial stewardship program, a lack of key members of the teams such as the pharmacists or the epidemiologists may limit the application and impact of the intervention. Lack of support and buy-in by the hospital administration can contribute to limiting the implementation of interventions such as monitoring of antibiotic usage and the application of updated hand hygiene interventions in the care setting.

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, & Price, N. Antimicrobial stewardship - can we afford to do without it? British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology, 79(2), 173-181. http://dx. doi. org/10. , Ribeiro, O. , Aragão, I. , Costa-Pereira, A. , & Sarmento, A. The Impact of Healthcare-Associated Infection on Mortality: Failure in Clinical Recognition Is Related to Inadequate Antibiotic Therapy.  Nursing Research and Practice, 2017, 1-7. http://dx. doi. org/10. 1155/2017/7406278 Fernando, S. , & Mehboob, R. Nosocomial infections: Epidemiology, prevention, control and surveillance.  Asian Pacific Journal of Tropical Biomedicine, 7(5), 478-482. http://dx. doi. doi. org/10. 1016/j. jopan. 103 Mehta, Y. org/10. 128705 Mitchell, B. , Shaban, R. , MacBeth, D. , Wood, C. Examining the online approaches used by hospitals in Sydney, Australia to inform patients about healthcare-associated infections and infection prevention strategies. Infection, Disease & Health, 22, S9. http://dx. doi. org/10.

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