Educating Nursing Professionals about the Importance of Hospital Acquired Infections (HAIs)

Hospital Acquired Infections (HAIs) are a common occurrence in healthcare settings, leading to increased healthcare costs and longer hospital stays. Nursing professionals play a crucial role in preventing the spread of HAIs through proper hand hygiene. However, there is a lack of knowledge and awareness among nursing professionals about the importance of hand hygiene. Educating nursing professionals about the impact of HAIs and the importance of hand hygiene can help reduce the spread of HAIs.

Running head: NURSING
Educating Nursing Professionals about the importance of Hospital Acquired Infections
(HAIs)
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1
NURSING
Topic
Hospital Acquired Infections (HAIs) is frequently occurring incidents under the
hospital settings which hampers the health and well-being of the patients by hampering the
overall process of disease progression (Lewis et al., 2013). It also increases the overall length
of hospital stay and cost of the treatment. The tendency of the hospital acquired infection is
mostly common among the groups of patients who are either immune-compromised or are
admitted in hospital with issues like respiratory tract infection, skin infection, wound care and
acute stroke. The common mode of hospital-acquired infection is urinary tract infection
caused by the Clostridium difficule, infection of the skin or respiratory tract by the
methiciline resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) (Lewis et al., 2013).
Rational of the topic
The rationale of the topic under the context of healthcare and the healthcare
professionals is not limited to the increase in the cost of care of the infections and increase in
the length of hospital stay. According to Khan, Ahmad and Mehboob (2015), healthcare
professionals play an important role behind the rate of occurrence of hospital acquired
infection. Khan, Ahmad and Mehboob (2015) stated that contact contamination is the main
source behind the spread of the noscomial infection of HAIs among the patients. This contact
contamination arise from the touch of the contaminate hands, improper disposal of the
microbes infected materials like clothes, cottons and bandages, lack of proper sterilization of
the hospital equipments like the operational tools and lack of proper space or setup in the
hospital in order to keep the infection prone patients under isolated condition. In relation to
HAIs, Khan, Ahmad and Mehboob (2015) highlighted that the contact contamination coming
from the infected or unsterilized hands of the nursing professionals are the same source of the
hospital-acquired infection. Khan, Ahmad and Mehboob (2015) stated that proper observance

2
NURSING
of the hand sanitization or hand hygiene protocol helps in reduction of the hospital acquired
infection. Allegranzi et al. (2013) stated that observance of WHOs six steps of hand hygiene
protocol by the nursing professionals helps in the reduction of the HAIs. This hand hygiene
protocol mainly involves the use of hand sanitization like alcohol hand rub both before and
after touching the patients.
Research problem
However, Jansson et al. (2013) highlighted that there is lack of proper knowledge and
awareness among the nursing professionals towards observance of hand hygiene. This lack of
knowledge leads to an unwanted spread of the HAIs. Jansson et al. (2013) recommended that
proper training of the nursing professionals and education about the importance of hand
hygiene will help to increase the observance of hand hygiene protocol.

3
NURSING
References
Allegranzi, B., Gayet-Ageron, A., Damani, N., Bengaly, L., McLaws, M. L., Moro, M. L., ...
& Donaldson, L. (2013). Global implementation of WHO's multimodal strategy for
improvement of hand hygiene: a quasi-experimental study. The Lancet infectious
diseases, 13(10), 843-851.
Jansson, M., Ala-Kokko, T., Ylipalosaari, P., Syrjälä, H., & Kyngäs, H. (2013). Critical care
nurses’ knowledge of, adherence to and barriers towards evidence-based guidelines
for the prevention of ventilator-associated pneumonia–A survey study. Intensive and
Critical Care Nursing, 29(4), 216-227.
Khan, H. A., Ahmad, A., & Mehboob, R. (2015). Nosocomial infections and their control
strategies. Asian pacific journal of tropical biomedicine, 5(7), 509-514.
Lewis, S. S., Moehring, R. W., Chen, L. F., Sexton, D. J., & Anderson, D. J. (2013).
Assessing the relative burden of hospital-acquired infections in a network of
community hospitals. Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology, 34(11), 1229-1230.