Innovative Infection Control Measures - Annotated Bibliography Example

Innovative Infection Control Measures Introduction Every year, patients in various hospitals around the world loose their lives because of infections that are spread within the hospital. Healthcare associated infections (HCAIs) are caused by micro-organisms and later on get transmitted to medical personnel and patients. They result from healthcare procedures within the hospital settings. Most hospitals and medical practitioners have realized the need of establishing infection control measures in medical facilities. Infection control should be the essence of the healthcare reform agenda in all healthcare facilities across the world. It should be a collaborative effort between nursing schools and infection control departments in hospitals. Despite numerous efforts that have been made to institute the culture of infection control in hospitals, serious incongruities are still being observed in most clinical practices. This has been associated with lack of basic infection control measures, limited devices and equipment, inadequate physical facilities for patient isolation, and limited resources to run such programs. Murphy, C. (2006). The 2003 SARS Outbreak: Global Challenges and Innovative Infection Control Measures. The online journal on issues of nursing. Retrieved on 21/01/2012fromhttp://nursingworld.org/MainMenuCategories/ANAMarketplace/A NAPeriodicals/OJIN/TableofContents/Volume112006/No1Jan06/tpc29_516064.html This is an international article and the author provides a brief overview regarding the global challenges that the healthcare workers face in instilling infection control during an outbreak. The author has used the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) case of 2003 to illustrate how ineffective infection control system is today. He filed his observation while working for WHO during the outbreak of the SARS. The article is based on reports and field observations. He clearly describes SARS-related infection control practices that were observed in some of the affected countries and gives a suggestion of what is required in today’s infection control practices. Most infection control inefficiencies are associated with attitudes and behaviors of health workers and not the setting under which they carry out the practices. Medical institutions in developing countries are the most affected because they lack infection control education measures and appropriate curriculum for delivering such information to the medical practitioners. This is why there are minimal efforts in their medical facilities for controlling the transmission of these infections. The sudden acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), which struck some parts of the world in 2003, spread out vey fast especially in southern Asia where it originated because infection controls inequities. The rapid spread is an indication that healthcare workers were not sure of what method of prevention was appropriate. The countries that were affected had differing infection control measures for preventing the transmission. In addition, lack of adequate supply of relevant commercial apparels for personal protection during the outbreak greatly contributed the varying infection control measures that were adopted. As a result, innovative strategies for controlling the infection were designed to prevent further spread. Corrigan, M., & Molloy, J. (2010). Spotlight On: Using Student Nurses as Hand-Washing Ambassadors: A Model to Promote Advocacy and Enhance Infection Control Practice. Vol. 35, issue 5. Retrieved on 21/12/2012 from http://www.nursingcenter.com/library/JournalArticle.asp?Article_ID=1055645 This peer-reviewed article emphasizes on the need to develop infection control concepts among the nursing students. The author has revealed the relevance of the article to infection control by arguing that infection control practices are being taught in classroom settings but you find the medical personnel disregarding them in the hospital environment. The article proposes that nursing students should be used in instill the discipline of infection control to other medical practitioners while in the hospital setting. Besides the healthcare facilities should also be monitored before and after making contact with the patient, According to Corrigan and molloy (2010), the most essential aspect of nursing students in the nursing fraternity is infection control. Every nursing course should emphasize on infection control practices, because nurses have a role to play when it comes to handling patients. Estimates from the CDC indicate that about 5-10% of patients admitted to hospitals in the U.S suffer from Hospital Acquired Infections. This infections account for close to 99,000 deaths every year besides adding to the healthcare costs additional expenses of not less that $20 billion. To help in reducing the negative effects of the HAIs, healthcare delivery facilities need to be thoroughly disinfected and also instituting the hand-washing policy and wearing of lab coats within the nursing fraternity. Procedures that are suspected to have violated the infection control policy should be halted immediately by the nurse concerned. This will help in breaking the chain of infection. A hospital policy in form of a simple checklist can help in monitoring physicians, nurses or transporters before and after making contacts patients and health care items. Jonathan R., Horan, T., Berrios-Torres, S. & Fridkin, S. (2011). Improving Risk-Adjusted Measures of Surgical Site Infection for the National Healthcare Safety. Division of Healthcare Quality Promotion, National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Atlanta. Networkhttp://www.jstor.org/stable/full/10.1086/662016 The SHEA journal is a peer-reviewed article that is published by the Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology (ICHE). It has been written by infection control experts and addresses various challenges that are encountered by both patients and medical personnel in a hospital setting. The article gives an outline of infection prevention and infection control programs that should be adopted in healthcare facilities and hospitals to prevent the spread of the HCAIs. In addition, it narrows down to improvement risk adjusted measure especially in surgical operations, a strategy that is recommended for the healthcare safety network. Medical records indicates that most patients end up staying longer in hospitals than expected because of problems that are associated with surgical site infections. This condition has been established as one of the common healthcare problems that is also associated with increased mortality rates as well as infections after surgical operations to reduce these risks, surgeons are expected to observe surgical sit infection surveillance and other quality improvement programs. This is because studies have indicated that hospitals that have surgeons treating their patients using non modifiable risk factors record high rates of SSI (Jonathan, Horan, Berrios-Torres & Fridkin 2011). Nurses are and will still remain to be the advocates in patient care within a medical facility. Protecting self and their patients from contacting infections, writing letters and books on infection control is the ultimate goal of nursing. The hospital management should know that health-care waste management is very important in controlling infections. This is because the wastes acts as a reservoir for most pathogens, which cause contamination that, lead to infections. The microorganisms are spread by various vectors or through air if the waste is poorly handled. This contributes to the risks associated with nosocomial infections that expose both the patients and hospital personnel at risk. Other basic measure such as patient isolation, cleanliness, disinfection, sterilization, and hand hygiene are paramount in a hospital setting. Conclusion Increased attention has been directed to the implications of infectious diseases to the safety of patients, healthcare workers, and the general public. More attention should also be directed to issues relating to infection control and what can be done to prevent and treat those infections. The challenge now lie on the local, national, and international healthcare experts as well as policy makers to design a minimum standard measure for infection control if patient safety is anything to go by. The common routine infection control measures such as patient isolations, mask efficiency, and use of isolation buddies need a proven efficacy that is clear. Some of the control measures that are in use today have not been evaluated completely and are therefore, subject to debate. References Corrigan, M., & Molloy, J. (2010). Spotlight On: Using Student Nurses as Hand-Washing Ambassadors: A Model to Promote Advocacy and Enhance Infection Control Practice. Vol. 35, issue 5. Retrieved on 21/12/2012 from http://www.nursingcenter.com/library/JournalArticle.asp?Article_ID=1055645 Jonathan R., Horan, T., Berrios-Torres, S. & Fridkin, S. (2011). Improving Risk-Adjusted Measures of Surgical Site Infection for the National Healthcare Safety. Division of Healthcare Quality Promotion, National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Atlanta. Networkhttp://www.jstor.org/stable/full/10.1086/662016 Murphy, C. (2006). The 2003 SARS Outbreak: Global Challenges and Innovative Infection Control Measures. The online journal on issues of nursing. Retrieved on 21/01/2012 fromhttp://nursingworld.org/MainMenuCategories/ANAMarketplace/ANAPeriodicals/OJ IN/TableofContents/Volume112006/No1Jan06/tpc29_516064.html Read More