Essay On Contact Precautions

During my clinical rotation at Palmetto Richland on the Acute Care for the Elderly unit there were several patients on contact precautions due primarily to Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) or high counts of gram-positive Escherichia coli bacterium (E. coli) in the urine and blood. A good example of best practice that I witnessed was the proper display and implementation of contact precautions around patients with multidrug-resistant organisms and bacteria (MDROs).
If a patient is placed on contact precautions on this ACE unit floor, a large blue hanging bag, called an isolation precaution bag, is hung outside their room containing gloves and gowns. The nurse is to put on the glove and gown before entering the room and making contact with the patient. If the isolation bag is understocked, additional gloves and gowns can be retrieved from clean utility. Patients on contact precautions may have their door left open, though depending on …show more content…
Palmetto Richland did not include masks in their isolation bags for patients on contact precautions due to MRSA. Although contact precautions do not generally call for masks, I believe that offering masks in the isolation bags hanging outside the patient’s rooms would be beneficial. When dealing with patients affected by MDROs, it is entirely possible that during patient care, blood, urine, or other infected bodily fluids could splash onto the unprotected facial area, creating a risk for infection. Though it may not be entirely necessary, I can only see how providing this option to health care workers would be beneficial and cause no harm. On top of additionally protecting the health care providers, masks may also prevent the spread of organisms from the health care providers to patients who may otherwise be