Causes of Nosocomial Infections Essay Example
Causes of Nosocomial Infections Essay Example

Causes of Nosocomial Infections Essay Example

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  • Pages: 2 (421 words)
  • Published: May 6, 2022
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Over the years, various medical institutions all over the world have been engaged in the fight to eradicate a major menace that has been a significant cause of morbidity and mortality and consequent increase in hospital costs for the patients. The occurrence of nosocomial infections, also known as healthcare – associated infections (HAIs) continues to escalate at a significant rate. The terms refers to the unanticipated infections developing in the course of receiving healthcare treatment leading to more dire effects such as increased additional diagnostic therapeutic procedures. Nosocomial infections are considered as indicators of healthcare delivery quality determining patient safety.

Eradicating nosocomial infections in hospitals is a major headache to various institutions due to a number of reasons. The reasons range from poor hygiene to lack of proper medical training and equipment. Despite their best intentions, me

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dics in some instances act as disease vectors disseminating the infections to the patients unknowingly. The failure to adhere to simple hygiene standards among the medical personnel in hospitals is one of the major hindrances towards total reduction of the infections transmission rates. Frequent handwashing practices remain to be the most important methods of intervention in the infections control. Today, identifying mechanisms for enforcing compliance by medical professionals remains a major problem in most hospitals. Gowns, gloves, and masks play an integral role in preventing the spread of infections but on the contrary, they are used inappropriately thereby leading to the spread of infections. For instance, stethoscopes and lab coats can be good sites for culturing virulent disease causing microorganisms yet little attention is paid to keeping them clean and free from contamination.

In the recent years, there has been a

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increase in microorganism isolates with a high antimicrobial resistance. The trends have been attributed to factors such as an increase in illness acuity among patients, poor nurse-patient staffing ratios, and the unavailability of system resources as well as other demands challenging the consistency of healthcare providers in applying evidence-based recommendations as a way of maximizing prevention efforts. Other reasons for the poor nosocomial infections control in hospitals include insertion practices for instance the central intravenous catheters, low rates of health workers influenza vaccination, and the inappropriate timing in the administration of prophylactic antibiotics among surgical patients.

Despite the efforts made by the hospitals to improve their health workers’ demands and resources, reducing preventable nosocomial infections to zero remains an imperative mission in a bid to reduce the morbidity and mortality rate and the consequent increase in hospital costs for both the patients and the hospitals.

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