INFECTION CONTROL PRECAUTIONS

Infection Control Precautions

Infection Control Precautions

Introduction

For controlling the spread of infection in clinical settings, nurses should abide by the infection control precautions necessary for this. However, in order for nurses to implement those precautions, they should have particular type of tools, precautions related knowledge, be adequately organized and cooperative. For example, unless nurses perform adequate hand hygiene, infection will be transmitted from a patient to another via the hands. Therefore, without those skills and requirements, nurses themselves may hinder the implementation of infection control precautions. This essay will discuss that when nurses do not adequately manage nursing time, have not sufficient knowledge and lack guiding nursing leadership, they themselves may become a barrier to effective nursing control precautions.

Body: Discussion and Analysis

When nurses do not have time management skills, they fail to apply infection control precautions according to the regulated principles. Findings of major studies investigating qualified nurse's knowledge and practice of infection control precautions indicate that nurses had a good overall knowledge, however in particular areas such as skin care/ hand washing and venepuncture/sharps disposa they had deficient knowledge (Gammon, et al, 2006). According to Picheansathian, et al, (2008), finding of the study indicate that when nursing personnel better understood the effectiveness of alcohol as well as its correct use, their adherence to the use of bedside and pocket alcohol dispensers was improved. Lack of knowledge in regard to infection control procedures made nurses inadequately perform hand wash as they washed only what they considered was the dirty part of their hands (Bennet & Mansell, 2004).

Moreover, nurses fails to apply alcohol-based solutions covering all surfaces of hands and fingers or does not apply until hands are dry because they have incomplete or inadequate hand hygiene knowledge. Because community nurses, for example, may not have enough knowledge about AIDS, they were less likely to wear gloves routinely for venepuncture (Bennet & Mansell, 2004). Therefore, given all those findings and factors, nurses, because of their lack of knowledge, could themselves hinder implementation of infection control precautions.

When nurses could not manage nursing care time adequately, they would fail to comply with all infection control precautions and may have to choose one over the other. In particular shifts, nurses find themselves burdened with providing care for large number of patients. In such circumstances nurses face challenging tasks because of the intensity of patients care.

According to Gammon, et al, (2006), intensity of patient care is defined as the number of opportunities for hand hygiene per hour of patient care. Therefore, nurses may forget or even choose not to perform precautions because of the lack of time. Findings of a major study investigating the effect of lack of time on compliance with infection control precautions; indicate that although in light work shifts many of nursing personnel would follow all hand washing steps before doing invasive procedures such as insertion of intravenous catheter, suction, and giving total parenteral nutrition; yet, in busy work shifts, they might restore to wash only their palms and the back ...