Description
i need one response to each peer
Madonna: This video represents a clear indication of failure in infection control that can cause great harm to both the patients and the workers. The nurse at the front desk definitely dropped the ball. She missed the opportunity to call the patient relative who was contaminating the front desk surface with contaminated glove to order. She could have wiped the contaminated surface with disinfectant or alcohol wipes because one could see from the look in her face that she realized that something went wrong at that instant. The new nurse who reinserted a new IV line failed to observe simple hand washing procedure. The saying which goes that hand washing saves lives should have been a reality in this whole scenario. Healthcare workers should always understand that proper hand washing, as simple as it may sound, goes a long way to save many lives. Also, the infection control specialists who are charged with enforcing infection control and preventing HAI as well should do a better job.
Working as a NICU nurse taught me a lot about infection control. Each team member on getting to the unit scrubs hands for 20 seconds before entering the unit, this is applicable to visitors too. Carrying out an invasive procedure on any client entails wearing gowns, gloves, mask and head cover plus frequent hand washing. This minimizes the spread of infections on the unit.
Tracking
Health care–associated infections (HAIs) are a significant cause of morbidity and mortality in healthcare institutions. Common examples include catheter-associated urinary tract infections, central line associated bloodstream infections as well as ventilator-associated pneumonia (Cagle, Hutcherson & Wiley, 2022).
Standardized infection control processes and precautions have been shown to reduce the rate of HAIs, and targeted practices for HAIs have shown further reductions. Patient safety tools have been developed for various HAIs to help guide administrators in preventing HAIs. Invasive devices used only when indicated and for the shortest time possible reduces the risk of device-related HAIs (Cagle, Hutcherson & Wiley, 2022). The authors went on to state that antibiotic stewardship targets physician behaviors such as reviewing antibiotic therapy choices every 48 to 72 hours, reviewing culture results as soon as available, de-escalating antibiotic therapy when appropriate, and documenting the indications for initiating antibiotics. These measures help to stop the development of multidrug-resistant organisms.
In my healthcare institution, badges with sensors are given to all healthcare workers to track how often they use the hand sanitizers as well as hand washing. The hand sanitizers has the tracking sensors too. If HAI such as MRSA is detected on the unit, every team member of the unit is swabbed and the specimen cultured to track where the infection is coming from and nip it on bud.
Globalization
The increase in human mobility has accelerated the speed and distance at which microbes are able to travel (Labonté, Mohindra & Schrecker, 2011). It is stated that the increase in human mobility has accelerated the speed and distance at which microbes are able to travel, with modern transportation, pathogens can spread faster and in a less uniform pattern. This scenario can affect the US as well as other countries. This is typical of what happened during the COVID 19 pandemic which purportedly originated from Wuhan, China. It spread like wild fire and resources to manage the infection were scarce; several lives were equally lost.
References
Cagle, D. S., Hutcherson, L. B., & T. Wiley, T. A (2022). Am Fam Physician. 105(3):262-270
Labonté, R., Mohindra, K and Ted Schrecker, T (2011). The Growing Impact of Globalization for Health and Public Health Practice. Annual Review of Public Health, Vol. 32:263-283 https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-publhealth-031210-…
nicole:This video has been shown before, possibly in an orientation for a job or in a leadership meeting, or maybe in another class. The video illustrates how invisible germs can easily be spread or prevented through proper hand hygiene.
On the outside, it is easy to see how the spread of infection can occur. On the inside, each member did not know they were contacting and spreading the infection. One big thing is the protocol of no gloves in the hallway. The family member should have been corrected on that. Hand washing, of course, is always an issue. In the SNF (Skilled Nursing Facility) a tag will always be written on handwashing from the surveyors. IF only germs were able to be seen.
Protect the portals of entry
Portals of entry, such as IV sites, PICC lines, oral, nasal orifices need to be monitored and protected intensely. The fact that the patient also had a cat scratch, perhaps questions about the vaccination status of the cat should have been asked.
Personally, when I see food workers wearing gloves to prepare my sandwich but never changing the gloves, the thought of transmission always occurs. In the dentist office, they also use gloves and touch everything in the room, then go straight into the mouth. I have brought this to their attention, that if they are touching something else, they need to change gloves before the fingers go in my mouth.
Stop the chain of infection
In the video, it was regenerated with each member doing what was supposed to be done in order to stop the chain of infection.
Proper hand hygiene protects those that are ill and those who are washing the hands. This prevents the spread of germs. The use of soap has shown to remove germs that can be spread from one patient to the next. Use of alcohol-based hand sanitizer can be used when not visibly soiled (CDC. 2023).
The video shows how the physician attempts to work to stop the spread by using a daily checklist and rounding list. Although this is taking a long time to implement, small changes could be made along the way to be preventing the spread of infection prior to the team being created.
Tracking
Tracking can often be used through the use of the electronic health record. Proper documentation can be pulled to reports. However, as in the video, tracking the cleanliness of counters cannot be tracked in a patient EHR. Therefore, there should be other protocols in place. Such as checklists or just making it a standard of practice to wipe the counter down after people touch it. To say, the counter should be wiped down every so many hours would be great, but not ideal as germs may have landed and spread in the in between hours. As the training continues, it shows the nurse discussing the gloves and wiping down the counter. Some sanitizer dispensers have tracking on the dispenser. Some can track how many times it is used and some require a badge swipe to show how many times it was used by which staff member.
Later in the training, it does show all the different options that should have or could have been used.
Globalization and Health Care
Globalization
Globalization is a term referring to integrating and collaborating communication, culture, economies from multiple different locations into one system, where countries no longer work as independent governments but as one giant system (Mooney, 2018). Although this has occurred to some extent in the past, this does not seem to be of value to first world countries. Threats to the United States is a removal of any freedoms that remain. Creating one leader of the whole free world just seems like a threat to any freedoms. We witnessed during COVID the benefits of being independently governed as noted by New Zealand who was able to stay COVID free when the rest of world was rampant with COVID, by complete lockdown ordered by Prime Minister Jacinda Arden.
Although the CDC and the WHO attempted to implement this in all countries across the globe, it was not successful as people had to get to places in order to survive. Each country was able to make their own decisions and each state or province was also allowed to make their own decisions on lockdowns and restrictions.
With globalization, who would know how to make the best decisions for the entire globe? How would the general population know that Prime Minister Arden had the best plan? How many other factors could be at risk with one global director, in terms of economy, infrastructure, policies, etc.? The biggest risk is losing freedom to a monarchy.
References
CDC. (2023). Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Hand hygiene in healthcare settings. Retrieved From. https://www.cdc.gov/HandHygiene/index.html
Mooney, C. (2018). Globalization : Why We Care About Faraway Events. Nomad Press.
UDHHS. NA. (2023). United States Department of Health and Human Services. Partnering to Heal. Teaming up against health care associated infections. Retrieved From.https://health.gov/about-odphp/trainings/partnerin…
