Introduction
The modern healthcare sector is focused on the provision of outstanding care to patients and significant improvement in their quality of life. For this reason, individuals safety and health become the central values that should be protected and cultivated by all health workers. There is a wide array of methods of care delivery and treatment that could be applied regarding the peculiarities of every case and patients unique demands. It helps to guarantee their recovery in the majority of cases and enhancement of their states. However, there are still aspects that might result in the deterioration of the quality of the suggested care and precondition poor outcomes. These include medication errors, the low competence of health workers, healthcare-associated infections (HAIs), etc. (McGuckin, Govednik, Hyman, & Black, 2013). Thus, the last ones are considered a significant issue in the modern healthcare sector as they deteriorate its image and results of treatment.
Introduction to the Problem
In general, HAI could be defined as an infection that occurs in a patient during the process of care in the healthcare setting, hospital, or other health unit, and that was not observed at the time of this very patient admission (McGuckin et al., 2013). It might occur at every stage of the patients treatment and even after his/her discharge (CDC, 2015). Moreover, occupational infections among workers of a particular health unit are also referred to as HAIs. In other words, these are one of the most frequent adverse effects of treatment that might appear due to the disregard of specific norms or demands for the delivery of care. According to the recent research, the problem might be observed in any healthcare facility regardless of the level of skills of workers, its management, or some other factors (Herzig, Reagan, Pogorzelska-Maziarz, Srinath, & Stone, 2014). Under these conditions, the comprehensive investigation of the suggested problem is crucial for its better understanding and reduction of its accidence.
Identification of the Problem
By statistics, every day, about one in 25 patients who receive care in the healthcare setting have at least one healthcare-associated infection (CDC, 2015). Moreover, despite the fact that there is a tendency towards the decrease in the number of registered cases of HAI and overall improvement of the situation, the problem still remains relevant. At the moment, the standardized infection ratio (SIR) is used to monitor the situation and track progress related to the occurrence of HAI in the healthcare sector (CDC, 2015).
Moreover, there are attempts to determine the most common causes for the appearance of HAIs among patients to introduce efficient measures of their elimination and improvement of the situation. At the moment, disregard the basic sanitarian norms and central aspects of hand hygiene are the main factors that might trigger an outbreak of this health issue and its further development (Al Salman, Hani, de Marcellis-Warin, & Isa, 2015). In such a way, the necessity to improve adherence to the introduced hygienic norms is the central problem regarding HAIs and their prevention. It will obviously result in the significant enhancement of treatment outcomes and the image of the healthcare sector.
Significance of the Problem to Nursing
The significance of the problem is evidenced by the fact that every medical unit report about the poor impact HAIs have on their work. These negative outcomes include prolonged hospital stays which means more spending; long-term disability both among patients and nurses that also deteriorates the functioning of the health unit and results; increased resistance to antibiotics among individuals who might suffer from infections; high costs of treatment that will include additional services and medications; unnecessary deaths (Herzig et al., 2014).
All these factors stipulate a significant deterioration of the image of the healthcare system, patients distrust and the growth of their dissatisfaction. Additionally, in accordance with the report, about 24% of healthcare units have SIR much higher than the value of national SIR (CDC, 2015). In such a way, the introduction of appropriate measures to improve the adherence to the basic sanitarian norms and hand hygiene among nurses and reduce the accidence of HAIs acquires the top priority for the modern healthcare sector. Being responsible for the appropriate care delivery to patients, nurses should be ready to engage in the change process with the primary aim to increase safety and enhance potential outcomes.
Purpose of the Research
Considering the information mentioned above, the pivotal purpose of the research is the investigation of the issue of HAI and its basic peculiarities. The enhanced understanding of the central causes for the development of these infections and the ways they appear will obviously help to choose the most efficient measures to struggle against them and eliminate the roots of the problem. Moreover, the research also aims at the comprehensive assessment of the efficiency of methods like electronic hygiene monitoring tool, additional training for nurses, and reports about the observation of sanitarian norms, probability of their implementation of the current healthcare setting and expected outcomes (Al Salman et al., 2015). For this reason, it is critical to evaluate these approaches and their impact on HAIs in different health units.
Research Questions
The nature of the research and its basic peculiarities precondition introduction of the following research questions. First, it is fundamental to determine leading reasons for the emergence of HAI. For this reason, the first research question will sound like.
What are the central causes for the appearance and development of HAI?
Second, it is essential to investigate the efficiency of the suggested measures:
Can the introduction of electronic hygiene monitoring tool, enhanced reporting system, and additional training for nurses improve the situation and reduce the accidence of HAI?
These are the two main research questions that should be introduced during the project.
Master’s Essentials
The proposed research topic is aligned with Masters Essentials outlined by American Association of Colleges of Nursing. First, the continuous improvement of the quality of suggested services and care is one of the basic aspects of any nurses functioning. It involves all levels of the healthcare organization and the problem of HAIs along with the observation of sanitarian norms and hand hygiene should be investigated in terms of this point. Second, the suggested use of the electronic hygiene monitoring tool relates to the sphere of health technologies that is also touched upon in Masters Essentials. In such a way, the project is closely aligned with its basic assumptions.
Conclusion
Altogether, the issue of healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) remains topical for the modern healthcare sector. Despite the fact that there is a particular improvement in the sphere, the majority of healthcare facilities still suffer from numerous cases of HAIs that deteriorate the quality of care delivery and outcomes. In such a way, it is critical to investigate the primary causes for these infections emergence and such approaches like the electronic hygiene monitoring tool or additional training to reduce the accidence of HAI and attain better results.
References
Al Salman, J. M., Hani, S., de Marcellis-Warin, N., & Isa, S. F. (2015). Effectiveness of an electronic hand hygiene monitoring system on healthcare workers’ compliance to guidelines. Journal of Infection and Public Health, 8(2), 117-126.
CDC. (2015). HAI national acute care hospitals. Web.
Herzig, C., Reagan, J., Pogorzelska-Maziarz, M., Srinath, D., & Stone, R. (2014). State-mandated reporting of health care–associated infections in the United States: Trends over time. American Journal of Medical Quality, 30(5), 417-424. Web.
McGuckin, M., Govednik, J., Hyman, D., & Black, B. (2013). Public reporting of health care–associated infection rates: Are consumers aware and engaged? American Journal of Medical Quality, 29(1), 83-85. Web.