If someone were to make a statement that there is an increasing number of patients developing infections as a result of having direct contact in health care settings, would it be believable? According to the American Association of Nurse Anesthetists (AANA), “Outbreaks of infection often caused by the failure of providers to follow well-established principles of hygiene and asepsis, have proliferated in the preceding two decade (Griffis, 2013).” Basic health care principles include the role of hand hygiene, environmental cleanliness, and isolation, which are reinforced repeatedly as methods to prevent infection. (Mitchell, 2013) Each principle is crucial as they pertain to patient safety regarding infection control, but these principles are still not guaranteeing an infection-free outcome according to recent data. These progressing numbers of infection control incidents in past decades have caused a major concern for both patients and providers, resulting in a need to revaluate proper nursing interventions in order to better prevent and control infection and ensure patient safety. Throughout this paper the main topics addressed are focused on improving and insuring proper patient safety concerning infection through the standards of practice and education.
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It is one thing to develop improved standards but ensuring that they are adequately met means there must be proper education taking place about the new standard expectations. From Nephrology Nursing Journal common themes that were identified pertaining to a patient safety survey were, “underreporting of events, inadequate and unsafe staffing, long work hours, cumbersome documentation systems, infection control practice failures, compliance issues with policies and procedures, inadequate training, and instances of communication break down (Kear, 2015).” One example from the survey on how poor education affected the nursing staff is demonstrated by the statement, “My coworkers skip infection control practices when they think they wont get caught. No administrator is on hand to correct the problem (Kear, 2015).” A failure to maintain standards is why proper education is critical in the field. When people get lazy or too comfortable in practice, errors are more likely to occur. According to Fundamentals of Nursing, “Effective prevention and control of infection requires you to remain aware of the modes of transmission and ways to control them (Perry, 2013).” Not being prepared on basic infection control or properly educated could cost someone’s life. If nurses are not receiving proper education of standards; their practice will be ineffective and unsafe for a patient. A patient will feel insecure and at risk if the provider has a lack of
It is one thing to develop improved standards but ensuring that they are adequately met means there must be proper education taking place about the new standard expectations. From Nephrology Nursing Journal common themes that were identified pertaining to a patient safety survey were, “underreporting of events, inadequate and unsafe staffing, long work hours, cumbersome documentation systems, infection control practice failures, compliance issues with policies and procedures, inadequate training, and instances of communication break down (Kear, 2015).” One example from the survey on how poor education affected the nursing staff is demonstrated by the statement, “My coworkers skip infection control practices when they think they wont get caught. No administrator is on hand to correct the problem (Kear, 2015).” A failure to maintain standards is why proper education is critical in the field. When people get lazy or too comfortable in practice, errors are more likely to occur. According to Fundamentals of Nursing, “Effective prevention and control of infection requires you to remain aware of the modes of transmission and ways to control them (Perry, 2013).” Not being prepared on basic infection control or properly educated could cost someone’s life. If nurses are not receiving proper education of standards; their practice will be ineffective and unsafe for a patient. A patient will feel insecure and at risk if the provider has a lack of