A request was sent three weeks prior to the interview date seeking audience with this advanced professional nurse. Within one reply a positive reply was given with a date and time agreed upon by interviewer and interviewee. The purpose of the interview was to evaluate Mrs. C.R’s awareness of Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI) and how it was implemented in the intensive care unit. After a brief greeting the conversation began. Her major concern was hand washing adherence regarding cross contamination within the intensive care unit since nursing burns entail surgical asepsis. Therefore any type of infection can cost the patient’s life.
Over the past two years she advocated the hand hygiene protocol which was implemented, but its effectiveness had to be evaluated over time. The goals was to assess the number of times a staff member performs hand hygiene when directed to do so in relation to "opportunities" observed when hand hygiene should have been conducted. Also, appropriate gloving is another protocol, which must be observed for compliance in relation to opportunities where evident usage is deliberately ignored (Centers for Disease Control, 2013).
As a supervisor, within the advanced nurse practice discipline Mrs. C. R. feels responsible for patient’s safety as it pertains to cross contamination within the unit resulting in infection and ultimately death. Further she contended that if burns patients die it must not be due to in infection because that is preventable. Hence, continuous quality improvement in the intensive care burns unit is crucial to successful outcomes.
These experiences shared by Mrs. C.R are beneficial to the science even outside the arena of intensive care since heath care related infections (HCRI) can be prevented with hand hygiene compliance. This is the reason for mandatory hand hygiene practices among health care professionals. This observation protocol compliance with hand hygiene is transferable to other health care settings and provides new data supportive of the technique adherence.
References
Centers for Disease Control (2013). Protocol for Hand Hygiene and Glove Use Observations.
Retrieved on May 6th, 2013 from http://www.cdc.gov/dialysis/prevention-tools/Protocol-
and-hygiene-glove-observations.html
World Health Organization (2011). Report on the Burden of Endemic Health Care-Associated
Infection Worldwide. Patient Safety: A World Alliance for Safer Health Care.
