Infection Control in Hospital Patients-Free-Samples for Students

Question: Discuss about the Infection Control in Hospital. Answer: Introduction Infection controlrefers to the discipline that is concerned with management and prevention healthcare associated or nosocomial infections in hospital settings. It is an essential topic in nursing owing to the fact that it forms the foundation of healthcare services, which aims to improve health and wellbeing of all patients. Infection control is selected as the research topic due to the fact that it is imperative topublic healthpractice (Krein et al. 2012). Its forms the major component of all kinds of invasive procedures that are administered upon patients in healthcare settings. Thus, infection control has two major implications in nursing practice (Rosenthal et al. 2012). While environmental disinfection will help in effectively controlling outbreak of an epidemic, it will also prevent spread of the infection by identifying exposure of all patients and healthcare staff to contagious infection. Further benefit is associated with the fact that the practice will remain in good standi ng with the standards and codes of nursing practice and will also help in increasing awareness on maintaining hygiene (Tacconelli et al. 2014). Reasons for undertaking research- The research activity has been undertaken on the aforementioned topic of infection control due to the fact that it is the primary objective of nurses in preventing the spread of pathogens such as, bacteria and viruses. It is essential in order to maintain a safe hospital environment for all patients. Reducing the risk of spread of pathogens will help in lowering rates of hospital acquired infections and will also ensure delivery of appropriate nursing practices. In addition, most sick and disabled people are cared for at hospitals in confined spaces. This increases their likelihood of getting affected with several microorganisms (CDC 2012). Therefore, it is essential to control the spread of infections. Furthermore, the research will also help in strengthening and increasing my awareness on demonstration of adequate nursing standards, thereby enhancing my clinical expertise and improving professional development. The research will also help in compar ing the effectiveness of traditional use of soap and water with chlorhexidine impregnated washcloths, thereby facilitating an easy understanding of the infection control practice that should be implemented in nursing practice (Rosenthal et al. 2013). It will also help in improving the nursing competencies through an exhaustive analysis of relevant literature, thereby assisting nursing workflow. Research question/hypothesis- The research question on which this research activity will be conducted is as follows: Does use of chlorhexidine washcloths reduce nosocomial infections? This research question will act as answerable inquiry that will facilitate addressing specific issue related to infection control in hospital patients. Research objective- It aims to evaluate the effectiveness of bathing using chlorhexidine washcloths in preventing hospital acquired infections. It will also compare the effects of proposed intervention with traditional infection control methods. This will further assist healthcare professionals such as, nursing staff in implementing the findings in future practice, thereby lowering rates of infection and improving the overall health and wellbeing of clients. Another discipline that can be correlated to this research activity is patient safety. This discipline emphasizes on safety of patients in healthcare settings through adoption of appropriate prevention strategies that are formulated with the aim of reducing medical errors (Borer et al. 2012). Thus, patient safety helps in eliminating chances of adverse patient outcomes. It encompasses reporting and analysis of all kinds of errors that might violate patient rights and predispose them to health hazards. Thus, in addition to nursing, the research activity will also enhance the arena of patient safety. Sources- Two sources that will be utilized to gather information on relevant articles related to infection control are as follows: PubMed- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/ Cochrane Library- https://www.cochranelibrary.com/ Methods of gathering information- Information will be gathered by searching relevant articles from the aforementioned sources. The research question is kept comprehensive and specific. The study will focus on using specific key terms or search terms that will help in retrieving articles that are relevant to the research question. Key search terms such as, infection control, infection prevention, hygiene, hospital infection, nosocomial, chlorhexidine, washcloth will be used in combination with several boolean operators namely, AND, OR, and NOT. Use of these operators will help in excluding articles that have been unpublished or are not relevant to the topic of interest. Systematic reviews will be used to collect information on use of chlorhexidine due to the fact that they contain exhaustive analysis of a wide range of studies and help in formulating answers to the proposed question in a structured format. Using systematic reviews in place of any other method will help in sysnthesising all available evidences on the particular question and will help us determine how effective the proposed intervention is. Systematic approach- Huang et al. (2016) conducted a systematic review that aimed to investigate effectiveness of daily chlorhexidine bathing in preventing nosocomial infections among ICU patients. Owing to the fact that healthcare associated infections are found to increase the length of hospitalization among critically ill patients and also increase associated medical costs, selection of this systematic review was a correct approach in retrieving information. It included articles extracted from EMBASE, PubMed, and the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials. It included 3 RCTs and 12 quasi-experimental studies, the primary outcomes of which were associated with rates of catheter linked bloodstream infections, urinary tract infections, and pneumonia. Results from most articles included in the review indicated that use of chlorhexidine in daily bathing helped in significantly reducing HAI among patients. Daily bathing in CHG was also found to lower mortality rates and occurren ce of adverse events. A randomized control trial conducted by Climo et al. (2013) evaluated the effectiveness of daily bathing using CHG impregnated washcloths on incidence of hospital infections and drug resistant organism acquisition. On conducting the trial among patient across 6 ICUs, findings of the trial showed a significant reduction in infection acquisition and rates of MRSA and VRE. A significant decrease was also observed in bloodstream associated infections during the intervention period. A quasi-experimental study was conducted among 3 cohorts to determine the effect of hospital wide CHG bathing on nosocomial infections. Upon administration of CHG bathing in form of showers or bed basin bath, the rate of HAI was monitored. Findings suggested that adherence to CHG bathing was more in adult patients in ICU. Furthermore, a significant decrease was observed in the infection rates during the intervention period, which was succeeded by increase in the washout period. Thus, implementation of chlorhexidine did not show any adverse effects on patient health. Analysis of the survey responses suggested that most nurses were capable of successfully implementing standardized bathing protocol (Rupp et al. 2012). A before-and-after study was conducted to describe the impact of CHG impregnated washcloths on VRE colonization. The study involved administration of the intervention on patients in the hematology and oncology ward and the incidence of VRE was determined. Significant decrease was observed in the rate of VRE acquisition during intervention, on comparison with baseline period. Roommates of patients with such infections were found at an increased risk of acquiring such infections (Bass et al. 2013). The systematic review is particularly relevant for this research activity due to the fact that it will facilitate understanding of the safety of chlorhexidine treatment, through an exhaustive analysis of the included research articles. It will also provide more generalizability of the findings and will help in implementation of the findings in actual practice. Conclusion Thus, it can be concluded that hospital acquired infections occur due to prevalence of bacterial, viral and fungal pathogens. These infections are most commonly found in intensive care units where patients are being treated for serious, life-threatening diseases. Based on the findings of the articles analysed, it can be stated that use of chlorhexidine washcloths can be implemented by infection control nurses in order to promote antisepsis. It will also prevent bacterial colonization, thereby eliminating infection. Thus, it has broad clinical application in healthcare setting and can be used as an effective and safe skin-prepping agent. Impact- In order to reduce transmission of infection among critically ill patients, the nurses should put on gloves and masks for protection (Page et al. 2013). They should take precautionary steps for washing their skin after handling CHG. Eyes of the patients as well as nurses should be rinsed cautiously on contact with CHG (Loveday et al. 2014). Use- The collected information can be used in workplace by showing compliance to specific guidelines framed by the hospital authorities. Patients will be regularly monitored to identify those susceptible to infection and will be isolated before administration of CHG. It will also help in identifying the source of infection or colonization of pathogens. Thus, it can help in reducing rates of nosocomial infections in workplace (Barbier et al. 2013). Reflection- The research helped me search realize that infection control is a major priority for all healthcare professionals. I understood that it is the duty of all nursing staff to ensure that healthcare professionals should practice good infection control practices to prevent all kinds of risk factors that might increase infection rates. Thus, all employees in contact with patients are bound to adhere to infection control practices for preventing the spread of organisms. One major change is regular monitoring of all patients and immediately isolating the ones found at an increased risk of infection. Issues- There is a need to conduct further research on effectiveness of other washcloths impregnated with herbal agents such as, bamboo for preventing infection (Yasin, Liu and Yao 2013). This will help patients who are cared for at their homes, where there is less availability of chlorhexidine washcloths References Barbier, F., Andremont, A., Wolff, M. and Bouadma, L., 2013. Hospital-acquired pneumonia and ventilator-associated pneumonia: recent advances in epidemiology and management.Current opinion in pulmonary medicine,19(3), pp.216-228. Bass, P., Karki, S., Rhodes, D., Gonelli, S., Land, G., Watson, K., Spelman, D., Harrington, G., Kennon, J. and Cheng, A.C., 2013. 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