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Prevention of Hospital Acquired Infection in Critically Ill Patients

An Outline

I. Introduction

a. Current Issue: Critically ill patients are acquiring illnesses in hospitals where they have gone to seek medication

b. Area of focus: Critically ill patients

c. Key words: Acquired illnesses, critically ill patients

i. Thesis statement: the problem of critically ill patients in hospitals acquitting illnesses is associated with negligence among healthcare providers and it will be necessary for the healthcare providers to address negligence so as to fight the infections

II. Background

a. Context of the problem; critically ill patients are vulnerable due weakened immunity and as a result, they need to be cared for properly. Cases have been on the rise where these patients acquire infections from the hospitals where they are receiving healthcare

b. Impact of the problem: the primary impact of the problem is that it prevents or delays the recovery of the patients. Besides, it may lead to death of the patients

c. What is currently being done to address the challenge? : while appreciating the enormity of this threat to the life and safety of patients, it is notable that there is little work that has been done to address the challenge

III. Preventing hospital acquired infections in critically ill patients

a. Point 1: Hospitals need to maintain very high levels of hygiene

i. Many of the cases of acquired illnesses in hospitals arise from the failure of the healthcare organizations to maintain high standards of hygiene

b. Point 2: Patients need to clean hands regularly

i. Regular cleaning of hand is one of the most effective ways of keeping germs away

c. Nurses must improve hand-washing so that they may not touch patients with germs

i. Nurses have frequent contacts with patients and as a result, they may easily transmit the infections to the patients

d. Use of protective gear when dealing with the patients

IV. Conclusion

a. Restate the thesis statement

i. the problem of critically ill patients in hospitals acquitting illnesses is associated with negligence among healthcare providers and it will be necessary for the healthcare providers to address negligence so as to fight the infections

References

Fox, C., Wavra, T., Drake, D. A., Mulligan, D., Bennett, Y. P., Nelson, C., ... & Bader, M. K. (2015). Use of a patient hand hygiene protocol to reduce hospital-acquired infections and improve nurses’ hand washing. American Journal of Critical Care, 24(3), 216-224.

Haverstick, S., Goodrich, C., Freeman, R., James, S., Kullar, R., & Ahrens, M. (2017). Patients’ hand washing and reducing hospital-acquired infection. Critical care nurse, 37(3), e1-e8.

Lewis, S. R., Schofield‐Robinson, O. J., Rhodes, S., & Smith, A. F. (2019). Chlorhexidine bathing of the critically ill for the prevention of hospital‐acquired infection. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, (8).

Mehta, Y., Gupta, A., Todi, S., Myatra, S. N., Samaddar, D. P., Patil, V., ... & Ramasubban, S. (2014). Guidelines for prevention of hospital acquired infections. Indian journal of critical care medicine: peer-reviewed, official publication of Indian Society of Critical Care Medicine, 18(3), 149.