INFECTION CONTROL Infection control is one of the most important and basic aspect of a nurse role, as well as the responsibility of all healthcare providers. The prevention of all infection is a major goal within all healthcare settings, and responsibility of all professionals’ health care providers to ensure this is achieved. As a Nurse, you must confident enough and knowledgeable to deliver an effective infection control practices, and you must adhere to the safety rules to eradicate the transmission of pathogens or infectious diseases from both patients and health personnel. In all healthcare settings, infection control is a continuous concern for its professionals. For example; in hospital settings, the nurse have to contact patients routinely and be exposed to their blood, urine, saliva, mucus, stool, secretions, excess moisture, dental plaque, wound, equipment use during surgery, and pus that may contain infectious pathogens. It is important for the professionals to …show more content…
Most clinical areas, the major hazards are the microorganism that leads to infection e.g. blood borne viruses which can cause communicable disease to the patient. Especially in dentistry, they are involved and exposed in diagnosis and treatment of diseases and condition of oral cavity in which direct contact in oral mucosa is higher. Initially in this case will offer a potential transmission of infection from one person to another person, but by the essence of cross infection control can prevent these transmissions. Under any certain circumstances, it is important to note by all health care providers that all microorganisms including normal flora can cause infections or diseases, by continuous exposures it requires significant effort to minimize occupationally acquired
Health Risks As you may expect, quite a bit of a dental hygienist's occupation requires working with individuals' mouths, and it's possible that you will come into contact with a patient who has terrible breath, swollen gums or tooth decay. Dental hygienists have close contact with patients when performing essential cleaning and dental check-ups. Being in such close-quarter scenarios hygienists may potentially get sick and get infectious disease that is carried by patients. You do ordinarily wear goggles and gloves to minimize the dangers, however these precaution measure aren't 100 percent good or effective.
Each year, the goals are analyzed and if necessary, updated. The 2016 National Patient Safety Goals aim to: 1) Improve the accuracy of patient and resident identification; 2) Improve the effective communication of caregivers; 3) Improve the safety of medication use; 4) Improve the safety of clinical alarm systems; 5) Reduce the risk of health care associated infections; 6) Organize identification of safety risks evident in patient populations; and 7) Set universal protocol for preventing wrong site/procedure/person surgeries (TJC, 2016). These safety goals are mandated so that medical errors are reduced and patients are given the best quality care possible. Some of the steps nurses can take in association with these goals include: using at least two patient identifiers to ensure correct patient treatment and reduce patient misidentification; making timely reports of critical test and diagnostic results; maintaining accurate patient medication information, and labeling all medications and containers removed from original containers; quickly responding to medical equipment alarms, and maintaining their upkeep; following hand hygiene guidelines, and using evidence-based practices to prevent infections due to multi drug-resistant organisms, surgical sites, or indwelling catheters; identifying patients at risk for suicide; and ensuring that sites are correctly marked for surgery through marking the procedure site and undergoing a verification process (Cherry & Jacobs,
A work environment requires more consideration for those around you and how your actions impact their health and wellbeing. It is astonishing to realise how quickly germs can spread through basic hygiene neglect. Poor hygiene can contribute towards many health-related problems. We have already explored how infection control can reduce these risks but it is always worth reminding yourself of these.
7 / D.P7: Explain how different procedures maintain health and safety in a selected health or social care setting Maintaining health and safety in health and social care is extremely important to ensure the health, safety and wellbeing of all their service users as well as other individuals service providers may come in contact with in the setting. There are several procedures that help to maintain this health and safety however they can all vary between settings for example, health and safety procedures will be slightly different and more focused on certain areas in hospitals and especially in paediatric ward compared to in drop-in centres where the needs and risk to service users are slightly different. Some of the procedures used in health and social care to maintain health and safety include; infection control and prevention, safe moving and handling of equipment and individuals, food preparation and storage, storage and administration of medication and storage and disposal of hazardous substances.
2.4 Needle-stick Incidents (NSIs) Nurses are the most risk of needle-stick incident compared to other healthcare workers. In fact, nurses tend to be exposed 4.27 times more often than physicians. A study in Pakistan revealed that in addition to very high rates of NSIs, low safety practices including inadequate vaccination coverage, unavailability of infection control guidelines and other preventive facilities were reported. Other studies found that injuries from contaminated needles and other sharp devices used in healthcare settings have been associated with transmission of more than 20 different blood borne pathogens to nurses such as hepatitis B and HIV .In Gaza strip, a study conducted by Eljedi reported that 66% of health care workers
Nursing practice in the 1900’s has changed immensely over the several decades. Education, roles, and hygiene has advanced tremendously since. Infection control started and has grown to be one of the most important roles in the medical field today. In the early 1900’s, nursing schools were directed by hospitals which provided a more useful practice for nurses to train efficiently.
Task one: P1. For P1, I will be writing a short report based on a placement that I have done at River Glade house which is a small residential home for 10 older people which have some sort of physical or mental impairment now in my report I will include 6 Potential hazards which are 2 Health hazards, 2 Safety hazards and 2 Security hazards that may arise in a health and social care setting. Health Hazards: A health hazard is an incident or injury leading to an illness.
It was a satisfying moment as a nursing student to not be afraid and know how to provide safe and preventative care to reduce the risks for falls, such as having my clinical instructor, a colleague and myself to help a client that has fragile bones and was confused because of their medical diagnosis. As well, we can provide proper prevention and infection control by applying correct hygiene care after assisting a client with an infection such as clostridium difficile. What did not go well after this experience is I found out that this client had clostridium difficile and at first, I was scared that now I am at risk and will acquire this infection. Instead, I looked at it as I am overcoming my fear of the different infections and diseases I will be exposed to as a nurse and that is why learning how to perform proper hygiene is very important. This bad thought turned into a learning curve and that nothing will make me not provide safe and effective care to any client.
As the Infection Control Representative part of the role’s responsibilities is to ensure the policy and procedures for infection control are being implemented by staff and that these procedures are being performed correctly. This will require education and training sessions to be held on a regular basis especially after an audit on staff members discovers staff breaching these infection control policies. These education sessions may have to be run more than once and over a couple of weeks, due to the facility operating twenty-four hours a day; therefore staff will not be able to attend altogether due to rosters. Once the times have been organised a venue will be required if a room is not available on the ward this may have to booked in another
INTRODUCTION: Bloodborne pathogens are microorganisms that present in human blood and they can cause diseases. These pathogens include: – Viruses such as hepatitis B (HBV), hepatitis C (HCV) and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), also, parasites such as malaria and certain fungi. Sharp-tools, needle-sticks and other apparatus-related injuries may expose stuff to bloodborne pathogens. To eliminate the risk of occupational exposure to bloodborne pathogens, implement an exposure control plan for workers on their worksite with enough details on protection measure.
Infection diseases happens when an unknown organism move into a person’s body and causes trauma such as bacteria, viruses, fungi and parasites. There are a lot of organisms in human body which normally harmless and helpful, but some may cause disease if the condition were alter. These organism stay in human 's’ body to help itself survive by reproduce and clonation. The infectious diseases can be easily passed from one to another. For instance, though the channel by bites from insects or animals.
Universal precautions as stated in the OSHA BBP standard is the concept of presuming that all blood, and bodily fluids including saliva carry bloodborne diseases such as HIV, HBV, and HCV. The practice of universal precautions is a key factor in limiting the chances of disease transmission to healthcare workers, their patients, and their families. It’s just as important for the healthcare professional to take proper infectious control measures in preventing disease transmission as it is for them to follow these universal precautions. Such control measures are to include but are not limited to handwashing procedures, the use of appropriate PPE equipment (protects the worker and the patient), and changing clothes before leaving the workplace
Despite the abundant research, safe and appropriate nurse staffing remains one of the toughest problems for hospitals to manage
Florence Nightingale is one of the historical nursing figures who has shaped my practice. One theory that still holds true and is of utmost importance is cleanliness. Cleanliness in the environment can include many things for example a clean surgical wound, or clean PICC line dressing, or a clean hospital room just to name a few. Evidenced based practices shows proper hand hygiene can prevent or stop the spread of microorganism. On the negative side many microorganisms are becoming resistant to antibiotics increasing the need for nursing profession to be diligent in cleanliness.
INTRODUCTION: A healthcare-associated infection (HCAI) or nosocomial infection is defined as any infection acquired by hospital environment and also by a healthcare worker, or which is acquired by a healthcare worker in the course of their duties. (1) According to the Health and Social Care Act 2008 that prevention and control of nosocomial infection should be part of everyday practice and applied consistently by everyone.(2) Nosocomial infections are responsible to increase the morbidity and mortality ratio in hospitals as the health workers and medical staff like doctors, surgeons, nurses carry transmissible agents on their bodies and clothes mainly involve white coats or lab coats, nurse’s uniforms and other hospital garments.(3)