Effective Nursing Practices Assessment 2022

Running head: EFFECTIVE NURSING PRACTICES 1
Effective Nursing Practices
Name
Institutional Affiliation

EFFECTIVE NURSING PRACTICES 2
Effective Nursing Practices
Residential Aged Care is one of the sectors in the health sector that requires many
different disciplines to wor together with the aim of provided all rounded care for their patients.
It is quite essential for these teams to work together since this part of the population have
weakened immune systems thus are at risk of getting infections. One such risk assessment is
infection control which helps the facilities control and manages the spread of infections such as
influenza and the common cold which both are a danger for the aged with weak immune systems
(Ibrahim & Davis, 2013). Therefore this essay will look into influenza as an infection that can
affect a residential aged care facility, infection control procedure that can be utilized, at other
risk assessment that can be carried out on aged patients like in the case study and finally it will
show the different health care providers from the different disciplines.
Studies carried out previously in residential aged care facilities show that there are some
infectious diseases that re common all through and they are known as healthcare-associated
infections with one such infection being influenza. Influenza commonly known as the flu is a
viral infection that affects n individuals respiratory tract that is the nose, lungs and throat.
Sometimes symptoms of the flu and the common cold can be confused as they are mostly
similar. Some of the symptoms include coughing, having a runny or blocked nose and sore
throat. However some symptoms are unique to influenza and these include the individual has a
high temperature, headache, joint and limb pain and aches, shivers and breaking into a cold
sweat, whole-body exhaustion and fatigue (Vanderven, et.al. 2016).
Influenza is mainly an airborne contagion but direct person to person contact also is a
mode of transmission. A person with influenza is contagious and can spread the virus to people
that are six feet away and this can be done when they sneeze, cough or talk. When they do this

EFFECTIVE NURSING PRACTICES 3
saliva droplet that contains the influenza virus land on the noses and mouths of people around
them who then possibly inhale these droplets into their lung leading to spread of infection.
Another mode of transmission is through contact with objects that have the contagious influenza
virus on it mostly through droplets of the saliva of mucus where the flu virus can survive for
some hours in dried mucus. After touching the infected surface the individual put it in contact
with either their eyes, nose or mouth which causes the infections (Whitney, Close, Lord, &
Jackson, 2012).
The aged population is particularly at greater risk of facing dire consequences when there
is a danger of being infected with influenza as they have a weakened immune system. Some of
these risks include; the risk of developing pneumonia which is a serious health complication for
older people, there is also increased risk of being hospitalized due to developing complications
and in very serious cases it may lead to death. Statistics in previous studies done show that
people over the age of 65 years account for approximately 70% of the deaths attributed to
seasonal influenza-related deaths. Some of the symptoms associated with the flu are already
conditions that the aged people suffer from like chronic lung infections hence there is a risk that
the symptoms may be overlooked and hence they are at risk to suffer more from the flu since
they are not receiving treatment (Henwood, Keogh, Reid, Jordan & Senior, 2014).
Infection control precautions are steps taken by any facility, especially healthcare
providers that are at risk of having infection breakouts, to ensure that they can control the spread
of said infections and treat them to prevent severe side effects such as death. These precautions
are put in place to protect both the patient and the health care providers from getting any form of
infection and they are mostly uniform in the patient health care sector (Tollefson, 2019). Some of
the standard precautions taken include; ensuring that the instruments and devices used on