Introduction
It is important for the organization to train their nurses and explain the different types of patient care activities that could result in hand contamination. The advantages and disadvantages of hand-washing should be explained to the nurses in order to make them more efficient in their nursing practices. I have reviewed three articles in this direction so as to justify the arguments put forward.
- KuKanich, K.S., Kaur, R., Freeman, L.C., and Poweel, D.A. (2013). Evaluation of a Hand Hygiene Campaign in Outpatient Health Care Clinics. AJN, 113(3), 36-42.
- Why did you choose this article? After reviewing the article, describe and discuss the clinical problem. What is the relevance and significance of this clinical problem to patient safety and nursing practice?
It has been frequently observed that, one of the key reasons, due to which, the healthcare services are degrading in the quality is due to the hand hygiene issues of the nursing and medical staff that are serving them. Only medications and providing healthcare facilities will not help the patients to get recovered on a quick basis. With this view, I decided to select this research article, whose objective was to improve the hand hygiene practice in two different medical organizations. The researchers want to introducer informational poster as well a gel sanitizer so as to enhance the hand hygiene practices. With such effective solutions, the patient safety will be ensured, and at the same time, even the nursing staff will improve their nursing practice from the healthcare perspective.
- What are the main points of the article? What scientific evidence was presented? Summarize the information.
The method that was adopted in this research was to observe the issues of hand hygiene within two given clinics. However, later on they introduced informational posters and usage of gel sanitizers. The researchers then noted the observations during the baseline, intervention, and follow-up periods. They also distributed a survey after the study amongst the healthcare staff.
It was found that, in both the medical settings, during the baseline period, the hand hygiene practices were very much poor, which were around 11% and 21% respectively. But, it improved significantly, during the intervention and follow-up periods. For the first organization, it went up to 36% and 32% during the subsequent periods, while it went to 54% and 51% during the next two periods. The researchers also concluded that, the healthcare staff preferred to soap and water instead of gel sanitizer. They were concerned about their hand hygiene, but were practically implementing the desired solutions. Finally, it was noted that, around 50 percent of the motivated staff preferred to introduce gel sanitizer as a part of this program.
- After reviewing the article, what change (if any) in your current practice should occur, or should current practice standards continue? How will this article be helpful to your practice?
Hand hygiene practices thus helped improved the practices hygiene practices in a given medical setting. In addition, the healthcare staff agreed to introduce gel sanitizer in their practices so as to promote the better quality practices of healthcare within the organization. This article thus helped in motivating the staff to improve their hand hygiene practices, and thereby, contribute in improving the healthcare environment within the organization. I personally, would suggest the same, to introduce gel sanitizer and introduce informational posters within the organization. It will improve the standards of the hand hygiene practices within the organization.
- Muzzi-Bjornson, L., Macera, L. (2011). Preventing infection in elders with long-term indwelling urinary catheters. Journal of the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners, 23, 127-134.
- Why did you choose this article? After reviewing the article, describe and discuss the clinical problem. What is the relevance and significance of this clinical problem to patient safety and nursing practice?
It is important for the nursing staff to look out for the ways that will not only protect the patients, but will also help them from preventing the spread of the virus or bacteria or any other disease through their physical contact in a given healthcare environment. A research similar on this theme was carried out to prevent the catheter-associated urinary tract infections (CAUTIs) amongst the adults. Recently, it has been found that, CAUTIs is highly prevalent amongst the elder patients. And, it has been even found that, these urinary tract infections (UTIs) have 30 times higher probability of causing the same disorder through physical contacts, as compared to other ways. Hence, it has become important for the medical staff to carry out an appropriate research that will help in identifying the factors that is causing CAUTI amongst the elder patients.
- What are the main points of the article? What scientific evidence was presented? Summarize the information.
The researchers have identified the formation of a biofilm in such cases, due to which, the surface of the skin will get eroded, and the patient will be suffering. In addition, the anti-bacterial treatment will not work if such biofilm has already formed. However, the formation might happen through many ways. And, one of them might be through physical contact with the nursing staff, which have not cleaned their hands properly or are contaminated with the virus of other patients. Hence, the biofilm formation will start, and will last into three stages. The first phase will include the growth phase, the attachment phase, and the detachment phase.
The researchers have provided a deep-intensive literature associated with this biofilm formation, and how the challenges will increase for the medical staff. They have provided information regarding how bacteria can penetrate the skin and how they will form the biofilm, which will degrade the health of the patient to a greater extent. It has been concluded that, the Silver-tipped catheters can help in retarding the growth of the biofilm. One will require utilizing the juice extract in order to control the adverse reactions. Thus, nurses are required to ensure the basic nursing principles, which will help in implementing better quality healthcare practices in such cases.
- After reviewing the article, what change (if any) in your current practice should occur, or should current practice standards continue? How will this article be helpful to your practice?
Preventing CAUTIs will not be an easy task for the doctors and physicians, and hence, they need to already take preventive measures to prevent such issues. The nurses, can thereby, implement the sterile insertion of the indwelling catheter, which will further help them to take better precautions in their daily practice. There have been many researches that conclude that disinfecting the hand and thereby making it more hygienic helps to avoid the spread of pathogens from one human form to another. It is due to this reason that nurses are advised to always keep their hands neat and clean in their nursing practice. I would thereby like to make a change of making nurses adopting the practices of hand hygiene. They need to wash their hands properly either with sanitizer or any other medical solution, and only then come into physical contact with the patients for their treatment. I would even advise to use these alcohol-based hand-rubs instead of soap and water, in order to make their hands neat and clean. It may even turn beneficial as compared to the antiseptic soap.
- Peyrani, P., Allen, M., Wiemken, T.L., Haque, N.Z., Zervos, M.J., Ford, K.D., Scerpella, E.G., Mangino, J.E., Kett, D.H., and Ramirez, J.A. (2011). Severity of Disease and Clinical Outcomes in Patients With Hospital-Acquired Pneumonia Due to Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus Strains Not Influenced by the Presence of the Panton-Valentine Leukocidin Gene. CID, 53, 767-771.
- Why did you choose this article? After reviewing the article, describe and discuss the clinical problem. What is the relevance and significance of this clinical problem to patient safety and nursing practice?
In the third article, it has been found that, the patients are suffering from v. It is infected with the Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) strains, and hence, it will become difficult to treat such patients. There could be antibiotics present that could help in solving the given issues of clinical condition. But, more important, we also need to analyze the role of the nursing staff in curing the patients. The objective of the paper is to compare the clinical outcomes of the patients and the severity of the disease between the patients that are carrying the PVL gene and those, who are not carrying the PVL gene. The paper has tried to focus upon certain medical aspects so as to provide more technical guidance to the nurse regarding the maintenance of the hygiene.
- What are the main points of the article? What scientific evidence was presented? Summarize the information.
The methods that were adopted in this research included an observational study of the patients of both the categories. The patients were subjected to genetic analysis in order to determine the presence of PVL gene. The severity was detected on the basis of the methods of Acute Physiology. There were even techniques of Chronic Health Evaluation implemented with a view to provide better treatments to the patients. The evidences are directly provided of certain cases that were involved in this research study. The results found mentioned that, prevalence of PVL+MRSA was around 27%. The mortality rates were around 10% from a population of 29 for the patients with PVL+MRSA versus the 10% from a population of 29 for the patients with PVL-MRSA. The nurses are therefore frequently required to check-up the patient, give medical dosages, use syringes for various purposes, take the blood samples, and thereby assist the doctor in every medical activity.
- After reviewing the article, what change (if any) in your current practice should occur, or should current practice standards continue? How will this article be helpful to your practice?
There are certain micro-organisms that will just grow and multiply them on the skin, but will not cause illness. Such micro-organisms include Staphylococcus, which are the most prominent ones that reside in humans. Other bacteria that reside on the skin include the Staphylococcus hominis and other coagulase-negative staphylococci, Propionibacteria, Corynebacteria, Dermabacter, and Micrococci. These organisms do not cause illness directly but cause infection once surgery procedures are performed. Thus, under the cases of community-acquired pneumonia, it is important for the nursing staff to wash their hands, clean them, and then even wear the gloves so as to protect the patients.
Conclusion
It is important for the organization to include all the stakeholders of the organization to implement the hand hygiene techniques in the given organization. All the staff need to work together in order to increase the efficiency of the overall medical practices inside the organization. There must be a senior leader that would help to remove all the barriers to such hand hygiene practices for the nurses. There should be a separate department that would provide the supplies for hand hygiene. There should be an alignment of leadership from the top management, executives, senior officials, doctors, nurses, and other medical staffs in order to set the expectations, remove the barriers, and celebrate the success.
References
KuKanich, K.S., Kaur, R., Freeman, L.C., and Poweel, D.A. (2013). Evaluation of a Hand Hygiene Campaign in Outpatient Health Care Clinics. AJN, 113(3), 36-42.
Muzzi-Bjornson, L., Macera, L. (2011). Preventing infection in elders with long-term indwelling urinary catheters. Journal of the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners, 23, 127-134.
Peyrani, P., Allen, M., Wiemken, T.L., Haque, N.Z., Zervos, M.J., Ford, K.D., Scerpella, E.G., Mangino, J.E., Kett, D.H., and Ramirez, J.A. (2011). Severity of Disease and Clinical Outcomes in Patients With Hospital-Acquired Pneumonia Due to Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus Strains Not Influenced by the Presence of the Panton-Valentine Leukocidin Gene. CID, 53, 767-771.
