Nosocomial infection - Research Paper Example

Nosocomial infection is also known as hospital acquired infection. It is a newly discovered form of infection which is said to be developed in a patient at the time of hospitalization. The symptoms of this infection can be identified after 24 to 72 hours of admission of a patient to the hospital. The expanded form of nosocomial infection is “Hospital acquired infection”. This sometimes takes into consideration the infection that patients may acquire in different institutions other than Health Care Units, or the infection acquired by people at the time of hospitalization but is diagnosed after they get discharged, or the infection that patients gets from patient care operations such as surgeries or dialysis. According to an early research, about 5 percent of the hospitalized patients get infected from nosocomial infection. It is because of the use of invasion procedures that this percentage of infected patients has increased to 8 percent. The frequent type of infections that can be categorized as nosocomial infection includes the surgical wound infection, blood stream infection, pneumonia and urinary tract infection. The cause of 80 percent of the nosocomial urinary tract infection is the use of unsterilized urinary catheter. nosocomial surgical wound infection can be categorized as the exposure of wound to the bacteria contaminated environment at the time of surgery. The causation of occurrence of nosocomial pneumonia is the frequent visit of patients to the intensive care units. Moreover, the cause of nosocomial blood stream infection is the usage of unsterilized vascular catheter. The duration of catheterization can also be associated with the cause of nosocomial blood stream infection. It is important that the health instructors must have the medical history of patients at the time of hospitalization for it will help in the better understanding of development of nosocomial infection. The hospitalized patients suffering from leukemia or going through any sort of implants have weaker immunity because of their ongoing therapy. The bodies of such patients are exposed to the bacteria that normally do not affect other people. The high rate of nosocomial infection has increased the considerable burden not only on the patients suffering from it but also on the health care providing facilities. The other causes of this infection are delayed rehabilitation, prolonged exposure to the therapies such as anti-microbial therapy, delayed healing of wounds and adverse effects of prolonged hospitalization. The duration of stay of urinary infection is about 3.8 days, 7.4 days for surgical infection and about 7 to 24 days for nosocomial blood stream infection. nosocomial infection occurring in knee or hip can be prolonged or in some cases may cause permanent disability in patients. nosocomial infection can be the cause of mortality in some extreme conditions. Fighting the war against nosocomial infection can be costly. In America the direct cause associated with nosocomial infection or hospital acquired infection is around $4.5 billion annually. The increasing number of nosocomial patients overcrowds the ward and this may restrict the access of other patients suffering from serious health issues to the healthcare facilities. A multi-disciplinary and systematic approach is required for prevention against hospital acquired infection. The prevention and control over the nosocomial infection can be achieved by the help and assistance of different infection control programs. The management of such infection control programs conducts regular surveys, surveillance and development of effective infection control policies, taking the advice of expert panel and educating the patients as well as the hospital staff regarding the causation and prevention of the disease. These infection control programs can be quite effective as they decrease the frequency of cases of nosocomial infection to about 50 percent. Surveillance is another important prevention measure that must be taken by the surgeon in order to prevent surgery related infection. The surgeons must be provided with the rate of his patients infected by wound infection. They must also be provided with the list of other surgeons’ wound infected patients so that they may compare their list to those of others. Continuously educating the health care staff about their significant role in preventing nosocomial infection is also important. Effective health related practices must be strictly followed by the hospital staff. This may include frequent hand washing and usage of gloves as hands are a significant means of transmission of bacteria. There must be separate guidelines present for the patients who are at an increased risk of nosocomial infection. Use of sterilized surgical instruments as well as catheters must also be included in the health care policy of the hospital. However every health care institution must also keep it in mind that the effectiveness of an infection control program highly depends on the dedication of staff, training and education and sufficient resources that would be necessary to carry out important procedures [Lin02]. Reference Lin02: , (Nicole, 2002), Read More