Application of Theories in Practice/ Improving Infection Control Practice Using a Theoretical Framework - Essay Example

Infection Control Practice in Acute Care Center Salafah Hakami Daemen College Department of Nursing Martha Rogers honed her theory through many yearsof her lifetime as an educationist. She saw nursing as both an art and science. The theory suggested that a patient cannot be separated from his or her environment while addressing both treatment and health. Therefore, by practicing nursing with this view of mutual existence of individuals and environment infection control can be taken to a higher notch (Laurent, 2000).

Rogers theory was commonly known as that of the unitary human beings because it seemed to promote symphonic interactions between the human beings and the environment to strengthen the integrity and coherence of people. In addition, it was to direct and redirect patterns of continued interaction between environment and people for the realization of best health potential. Dirty environment is the major source of infection since it harbours the vectors that transmit diseases as well as the disease-causing organisms.

Therefore, relating Rogers’s theory to infection prevention control, it is quite evident that nurses need to maintain their environment clean to obtain optimal health to the patient and themselves. Empowering both nurses and patient in infection prevention is vital in improving and maintaining health of everyone in the hospital. The theory will, therefore, be applied in the hospital by gearing it towards maintenance of a clean environment and proper waste disposal among the staff and patient in the hospital.

This can be achieved by coupling the theory with classical theory of learning whereby the management continuously teach the staff and patients on the importance of maintaining the environment clean to an extent that it become a norm of practice. Martha Rogers theory is, therefore, a pillar in encouraging proper waste disposal, maintain environmental cleanliness and use of protective gears to promote health to both hospital staff and patient. This article provides an array of good will in the application of this theory in that environmental manipulation to cleanliness and individual mindset manipulation to proper waste disposal coexist to create good infection control procedures.

In a study conducted in India on the impact of the environment to disease prevalence, it was noted that a clean environment has a direct link to low disease outbreak and prevalence (Warren & Kollef, 2005). Borrowing this to apply in Rogers theory, all the staff and patients were encouraged and involved in maintaining their environment clean, and this was achieved by training them on its merits to their personal health. Different bins with different colour codes were introduced to dispose of different waste generated in the hospital as well as injection safety boxes to dispose sharp objects.

Moreover, the support staff improved from just mopping the floor also to dump dusting the cabins and walls in the wards. After its application, there was a dramatic reduction of nosocomial infection in the hospital that were mostly caused by poor waste disposal and lack of a clean environment in the past.Reference Laurent, C. L. (2000). A nursing theory for nursing leadership. Journal of Nursing Management, 8, 83–87.Warren, D. K., & Kollef, M. H. (2005). Prevention of hospital infection. Microbes and Infection, 7, 267–273.