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Hand Hygiene Name of the student: An Australian university

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Added on  2021-06-14

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Researchers are of the opinion that hospital acquired infections, especially the urinary tract infections, MRSA infections, surgical site infections and respiratory infections in the cardiac arrest or stroke patients are contributing factors to enhanced mortality in the patients due to their frail and immune-compromised state due to the burden of the burden of the disease (Huttner et al., 2013). (2014), health care associated infections or the HCAIs comprises of central line associated bloodstream infections, catheter-associated urinary tract infections, ventilator-

Hand Hygiene Name of the student: An Australian university

   Added on 2021-06-14

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Running head: HAND HYGIENEHand hygieneName of the student:Name of the university:Author note:
Hand Hygiene Name of the student: An Australian university_1
1HAND HYGIENEInfection control can be defined as one of the most important concepts associated withthe health care delivery in the present day scenario. The frequency of hospital associatedinfection has risen in an alarming rate and in case of the Australian demographics, it has to bementioned that around 165000 Australians have been reported to be contracting infections in thehealth care facility on a yearly basis. Researchers are of the opinion that hospital acquiredinfections, especially the urinary tract infections, MRSA, surgical site infections and respiratoryinfections in the cardiac arrest or stroke patients are contributing factors to enhanced mortality inthe patients due to their frail and immune-compromised state due to the burden of the burden ofthe disease (Huttner et al., 2013). This essay will attempt to explore hand hygiene which is oneamong the most effective infection control measure for preventing the health care acquiredinfections in the health care setting. The essay will sequentially cover how infections can spreadin the health care facilities, specific actions to be taken in order to avoid HCAI, and differentstrategies to ensure hand hygiene compliance. As mentioned by the Slimings et al. (2014), the modern health care system has a varietyof different invasive devices and procedures that are regularly used to treat the patients such asfeeding tubes, catheters, ventilators, masks and many more. All these devices and the hands ofthe health care providers are reservoir for various pathogens that can cause a variety of differentinfections. It has to be mentioned that the impact of the health care associated infections isextreme on the patient safety and leads directly to enhanced mortality and morbidity in thepatients and is also facilitated on the increased hospice stay and healthcare costs. According tothe Gardner et al. (2014), health care associated infections or the HCAIs comprises of centralline associated bloodstream infections, catheter catheter-associated urinary tract infections,ventilator-associated pneumonia, and surgical site infections. The term of HCAI is known to
Hand Hygiene Name of the student: An Australian university_2
2HAND HYGIENEcover a wide array of infections, however the most known of the infections are the MRSA andthe Clostridium difficile. Exploring how the health care associated infections occur, it has to be mentioned thathealth care associated infections can occur across a variety of different health care scenarios suchas the acute care, ambulatory surgical centres, dialysis ward, outpatient care services and eventhe long term care facilities. There are different types of HCAI and each type has a differentinfection method. For instance, the central line associated blood stream infection or CLABSI canbe classified where the pathogen, mainly bacteria, invades the blood stream through any of thecentral line devices. These are considered as a very impactful infection type leading of severeexacerbations and causing a large number of deaths and added costs to the Australian health caresystem. The most common type of HCAI is the MRSA infection or the Methicillin resistantStaphylococcus aureus, an infection which is very difficult to control due to the pathogen beingresistant to a wide variety of broad spectrum antibiotics. This generally transmitted via contactwith the care providers’ hands mostly and leads to life-threatening bloodstream infections,pneumonia, and surgical site infections. Hence, these are a few common types of health careassociated infections that fall under the HCAI and cause a high number of exacerbations andeven death in the Australian health care system (Uhlemann et al., 2014).It has to be mentioned that infection control plays a very important role in the preventingthe different health care associated infections and ensuring optimal patient safety for the patentsresiding in the different care facilities. According to WHO, these infections affect hundreds ofmillions of patients all across the globe and human behavior is the most important contributingfactor to the causing of the infections. It has to be mentioned in this context that the most of theseinfections are easily preventable if adequate infection control measures cam be taken. There are
Hand Hygiene Name of the student: An Australian university_3

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