Infection Control in Hospital Environment: Importance of Hand Hygiene

Running Head: NURSING
0
Nursing Leadership
Infection control in Hospital Environment: The Importance of Hand Hygiene
8/13/2019

NURSING
1
Contents
Criterion one: Introduction.........................................................................................................2
Criterion second: Critical Reflection and effective clinical leadership.....................................3
Criterion three: Clinical leadership expectations and scope of nurses.......................................5
Criterion four: Elements of effective leadership.......................................................................7
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................9
References................................................................................................................................10

NURSING
2
Criterion one: Introduction
The report brings about the discussion on the issue of ‘infection control in the hospital
environment, which is primarily based on the hand hygienic conditions’. Infection control
refers to the systematic steps, facilitated by healthcare with the aim to prevent the spread of
infectious diseases. The aspect of infection control, which is basically controlled by keeping
hand hygiene in the healthcare units, is a significant part of the culture of hospitals. Ensuring
hand hygiene is to prevent patients, employees, clients, and families against infectious
disease. It states about the significance of the issue within healthcare and impact on health of
people.
The problem is encountered in terms of ineffective inspection systems of the healthcare units,
and the increasing rate of infection outbreaks in the hospitals. The issue of infection control
has become a severe problem in the hospitals, because every year number of lives is lost
because of the spread of infections in hospitals. Managing healthcare hygiene which is
directly related to hand hygienic conditions is an integral part of the hospital hygiene and
infection control, therefore hand hygiene in hospitals has acquired great importance. Thus,
these aspects address to the requirement of maintaining safety and health of the patient in the
health care units (King et al., 2016).
Criterion second: Critical Reflection and effective clinical leadership
The aspects of improving patient safety and healthy workplace are an integral part of the
nursing leadership within healthcare. This is important to ensure reduction in the medical
errors, thereby leading improvement in quality of healthcare. A safety culture in healthcare
requires a strong, committed leadership, along with the engagement of people in the
workplace. Clinical leadership is essential to ensure making a safe and effective care a reality,
and to further improve the healthcare quality. However, role of a nurse leader is considered
important in promoting effective nursing practices, and positive outcome of treatment (King
et al., 2016).
It has been found through research that hand hygiene under the system of infection control is
still considered a problem. This is because of the fact that there is a low awareness of the
importance of hand hygiene in controlling the rates of infection in hospitals. The staffs in the
hospitals are not aware about the severity of the consequences related to low hand hygiene
and leading death of individuals (Hall et al., 2015). From the research, it has been found that