Infection Control: Use of Chlorhexidine Washcloths to Prevent Nosocomial Infections

Running head: EVIDENCE BASED NURSING RESEARCH
Topic 1- Infection Control
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1EVIDENCE BASED NURSING RESEARCH
Introduction- Infection control refers to the discipline that is concerned with management
and prevention healthcare associated or nosocomial infections in hospital settings. It is an
essential topic in nursing owing to the fact that it forms the foundation of healthcare services,
which aims to improve health and wellbeing of all patients. Infection control is selected as the
research topic due to the fact that it is imperative to public health practice (Krein et al. 2012). Its
forms the major component of all kinds of invasive procedures that are administered upon
patients in healthcare settings. Thus, infection control has two major implications in nursing
practice (Rosenthal et al. 2012). While environmental disinfection will help in effectively
controlling outbreak of an epidemic, it will also prevent spread of the infection by identifying
exposure of all patients and healthcare staff to contagious infection. Further benefit is associated
with the fact that the practice will remain in good standing with the standards and codes of
nursing practice and will also help in increasing awareness on maintaining hygiene (Tacconelli et
al. 2014).
Reasons for undertaking research- The research activity has been undertaken on the
aforementioned topic of infection control due to the fact that it is the primary objective of nurses
in preventing the spread of pathogens such as, bacteria and viruses. It is essential in order to
maintain a safe hospital environment for all patients. Reducing the risk of spread of pathogens
will help in lowering rates of hospital acquired infections and will also ensure delivery of
appropriate nursing practices. In addition, most sick and disabled people are cared for at
hospitals in confined spaces. This increases their likelihood of getting affected with several
microorganisms (CDC 2012). Therefore, it is essential to control the spread of infections.
Furthermore, the research will also help in strengthening and increasing my awareness on
demonstration of adequate nursing standards, thereby enhancing my clinical expertise and

2EVIDENCE BASED NURSING RESEARCH
improving professional development. The research will also help in comparing the effectiveness
of traditional use of soap and water with chlorhexidine impregnated washcloths, thereby
facilitating an easy understanding of the infection control practice that should be implemented in
nursing practice (Rosenthal et al. 2013). It will also help in improving the nursing competencies
through an exhaustive analysis of relevant literature, thereby assisting nursing workflow.
Research question/hypothesis- The research question on which this research activity will
be conducted is as follows:
Does use of chlorhexidine washcloths reduce nosocomial infections?
This research question will act as answerable inquiry that will facilitate addressing
specific issue related to infection control in hospital patients.
Research objective- It aims to evaluate the effectiveness of bathing using chlorhexidine
washcloths in preventing hospital acquired infections. It will also compare the effects of
proposed intervention with traditional infection control methods. This will further assist
healthcare professionals such as, nursing staff in implementing the findings in future practice,
thereby lowering rates of infection and improving the overall health and wellbeing of clients.
Another discipline that can be correlated to this research activity is patient safety. This
discipline emphasizes on safety of patients in healthcare settings through adoption of appropriate
prevention strategies that are formulated with the aim of reducing medical errors (Borer et al.
2012). Thus, patient safety helps in eliminating chances of adverse patient outcomes. It
encompasses reporting and analysis of all kinds of errors that might violate patient rights and
predispose them to health hazards. Thus, in addition to nursing, the research activity will also
enhance the arena of patient safety.

3EVIDENCE BASED NURSING RESEARCH
Sources- Two sources that will be utilized to gather information on relevant articles related to
infection control are as follows:
 PubMed- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/
 Cochrane Library- http://www.cochranelibrary.com/
Methods of gathering information- Information will be gathered by searching relevant
articles from the aforementioned sources. The research question is kept comprehensive and
specific. The study will focus on using specific key terms or search terms that will help in
retrieving articles that are relevant to the research question. Key search terms such as, “infection
control”, “infection prevention”, “hygiene”, “hospital infection”, “nosocomial”, “chlorhexidine”,
“washcloth” will be used in combination with several boolean operators namely, AND, OR, and
NOT. Use of these operators will help in excluding articles that have been unpublished or are not
relevant to the topic of interest.
Systematic reviews will be used to collect information on use of chlorhexidine due to the fact
that they contain exhaustive analysis of a wide range of studies and help in formulating answers
to the proposed question in a structured format. Using systematic reviews in place of any other
method will help in sysnthesising all available evidences on the particular question and will help
us determine how effective the proposed intervention is.
Systematic approach- Huang et al. (2016) conducted a systematic review that aimed to
investigate effectiveness of daily chlorhexidine bathing in preventing nosocomial infections
among ICU patients. Owing to the fact that healthcare associated infections are found to increase
the length of hospitalization among critically ill patients and also increase associated medical
costs, selection of this systematic review was a correct approach in retrieving information. It