Hospital Acquired Infections - Essay Example

PICOT (PPE Worksheet)

The paper's purpose is to examine and research a PICOT question regarding HIA (Hospital Acquired Infections), where I analyze various evidence on the topic and then explain its significance to nursing practice. As a PPE worksheet, the objective is to examine how the studies help improve safety and quality in a healthcare setting.

PICOT Question

The PICOT question is: “In an ICU setting amongst the patients (P), how does handwashing (I) before and after patient care (C) influence the minimizing instances (O) of Hospital Acquired Infections over one month (T)?” In essence, the P = the patients’ population, I = the intervention, which is handwashing, C = before and after as the comparison of interest, O = the research’s outcome, which is minimized HAIs, and finally T = period of the research.

Evidence Retrieval and Summary

The first evidence is derived from “Hand Hygiene Practices in a NICU Setting” by Barbara C. Lam, Y. Lau and Josephine Lee. The journal was retrieved from the Journal of Pediatrics, whereby two of the authors are Registered Nurses. Therefore, the study is relatable to a nurse’s everyday duties. Hence, it qualifies the article as a great choice of basing evidence from. It is important to note that the research is problem-based and highly task-oriented in educating nurses on hand hygiene. It also explains the importance of enhancing minimal handling protocol, de-clustering nursing care, and insisting on alcohol-based sanitizers. The researchers of the study assert the value of regular hand hygiene checkups, as well as implementing associated healthcare infections.

Barbara C. Lam and her colleagues based their research on real evidence, whereby they sampled 12 beds at the NICU setting. The researchers then carried out a comprehensive statistical analysis of the participants. The results showed an increased hand hygiene compliance, such that the figures jumped from 40 to 53 percent before any patient contact. The results also show an increase from 39 to 58 percent after contact with patients. The study’s evidence is effective to the PICOT question since its results were spot on and didn’t make many errors. The study’s results indicated that Hospital Acquired Infections reduced from 11.4 to 6.1 per 1,000 patient-days. The journal is effective in this PICOT question because it has the (T) Time aspect, whereby the researcher also measured the patient days. The research was based on observational auditing, thereby categorizing it as level six as per the QSEN (Quality and Safety Education for Nurses). Although the study’s sample was limited to 12 patients, it is pertinent to the nursing practice, making it a further effective due to the personal touch the researchers had on the participants.

The second evidence is from the journal by Steven Schwen and colleagues on “Effectiveness Of A Comprehensive Hand Hygiene Program In A Care Facility.” The article was published in the Journal of Infection, whereby peers got to review it. Just like the previous evidence-based journal, three of the researchers are Registered Nurses. The best aspect of this is that the materials apply to the nurses, especially in terms of the LTCFs (Long-Term Care Facilities). The study sampled 174 beds over 22 months. Unlike Barbara and colleagues, this study was very comprehensive, and they did not limit themselves to a period of months, but rather two years of observation. Therefore, this is a useful study for this PICOT analysis. The results of the survey indicated decreased infections from 0.98 to 0.54 per 1,000 patient-days. Once again, this study is helpful because it also focuses on the aspect of Time (T), which helps me in figuring out the time estimates for this PICOT research. At the same time, the research paper is also categorized as level six of the QSEN standards. Like the other journal, this question offers some observable results whereby infections were minimized due to recommendations on handwashing.

Implication of Evidence

As expected, the two pieces of evidence should be effective in helping nurses come up with creative ways of minimizing Hospital Acquired Infections. That is, the shreds of evidence help patients recover from injuries and illnesses, and at a faster rate than before; hence, improving nursing practice. The researchers in the two journals have insisted on minimizing reinfections due to readmissions whereby a patient becomes sick once readmitted to the hospital. In essence,

Each year, the introduction of diseases and eventually the development of HAIs triggers millions of conditions leading to thousands of deaths, most of which are preventable. To monitor the spread of HAIs, nurses must be cautious and conscientious to their hand hygiene procedures and stick to their Doing No Harm ethics code. Personal hygiene is an easy and swift action that will have serious implications if not correctly followed. Despite the lower amount of proof, the above studies provide evidence and convincing evidence that better hand hygiene habits are equivalent to lower infections, eventually leading to healthier outcomes, reduced hospital visits, and lower costs.

Although there is usually a need for higher rates of evidence studies to implement policy reform, it is not appropriate. It will be dangerous and lead to tragic results. Health professionals must be able to explain what constitutes proper care using empirical evidence, identify differences between excellent care and the clinical treatment given in their practices, or recognize what methods they are doing. There is empirical data on the effectiveness of washing hands and then all intelligent nurses ought to be able to understand and stick to the value of good hand hygiene, not any of the time, and yet all the time. The Nurses Code is nonnegotiable and that each nurse has to follow and conform to the ethics code. If clinicians comply with the universal rule of ethics, they must follow proper handwashing procedures to ensure that they do not harm their patients by contaminating them with HAI (Hospital Acquired Infections).

Evidence Search Terms

Key terms used to scan included Hospital Acquired Infections, HAIs, Management of Infections, Hand Washing, Hand Hygiene, Hand Washing / Hygiene, and Infection Prevention. There were hundreds of observations. The scope was whittled down to include only papers written in the last five years. Articles were screened to include only those written by Registered Nurses entirely or at least partially. In contrast to doctors or certified nursing assistants, only those related to RNs have been used as filtered articles.

Evidence Search Strategy

As regards policy, the work carried out for this article was achieved through comprehensive online database searches. Primarily CINHAL and Medline, as there are nursing and scientific papers in those repositories. Initially, only specific nursing journals were scanned, as this article refers to nursing. Eventually, though, all medical items were searched, as this provided the most comprehensive collection of information. There are several articles published which relate to nursing, by nurses, in publications that are not limited to the nursing field. The papers which were ultimately selected were written in non-nursing journals.