Role of Nurse Unit Manager in Identifying Onset of Hospital Acquired Infection

Running head: NURSING LEADERSHIP
NURSING LEADERSHIP
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1NURSING LEADERSHIP
The essay highlights the role Nurse Unit Manager (NUM) in identifying the onset of
hospital acquired infection (HAI) in the ward from last three months. The primary role of
Nurse Unit Manager is to supervise the operating unit within health care facility comprising
of supervising the nursing staff and monitoring patient’s health condition (Salmond &
Echevarria, 2017). In this essay, the registered nurse will develop two main strategies that can
be implemented within the hospital premises and reduce the potential risk of hospital
acquired infections. The source that leads to these infection will be highlighted by the nurse
and accordingly strategies will be develop to reduce the incidence of infection. Hospital
acquired infection is also known as nosocomial, is defined as a type of infection that is
prevalent and acquired in the hospitals. Bacteria are the major cause of hospital acquired
infection that can be severe and hard to treat (Khan, Ahmad & Mehboob, 2015). A detail
insight is provided on the concept of hospital acquired infection and the problems caused due
to this infection that can affect the patient and the working staff members within the hospital
premises. The role of registered nurse is to critically analyse the problems caused by hospital
acquired infection and according identify an alternative strategy to reduce the complexity of
the infection. The essay will focus on two main strategy developed and implemented by the
registered nurse that includes hand hygiene strategy and Aseptic technique strategy
(Asadollahi et al., 2015). The nurse will highlight the effect of implementing the strategies by
describing the method used for implementing the strategy, highlighting the facilitators and
barriers of using the strategy. Hence, in this essay a complete focus is provided on the role of
registered nurse to identify primary causes of hospital acquired infection and implement
strategies in nursing practice to reduce the potential risk of hospital acquired infection for the
patient.
Hospital acquired infection (HAI) is defined as the infection caused to the patient who
are hospitalized or are present within the hospital premises. Nosocomial is the medical term

2NURSING LEADERSHIP
that is used for addressing hospital acquired infection that is triggered mostly due to bacteria
(Sahealth.sa.gov.au, 2019). It is hence referred as a common medical complication, which
occurs during any medical treatment due to the present microorganism like viruses and
bacteria. These microorganism are either found in hospital environment or within the body of
an individual. The patient with surgical wound or any inserted medical devices such as
urinary catheter, intravenous drip and wound drain are under high risk of acquiring hospital
acquired infection. In Australia, approximately 6% of the patient who are admitted to the
hospital acquire the infection during admission with more than 165,000 cases of HAI each
year (Spelman, 2019). In Australia, the most common type of hospital acquired infection are
surgical wound infection, urinary and respiratory tract infection and contamination linked
with intravascular cannulas. According to National Nosocomial Prevalence Survey, 6.3% of
hospitalised patient out of 28,643 patient had acquired the infection. Hospital acquired
bloodstream infection is considered as the eight principal cause of demise in Australia. The
risk of developing hospital acquired infection is more prevalent in bigger hospitals than
compared to the smaller hospitals (Fernando, Gray & Gottlieb, 2017). Different strategies can
be used to reduce the prevalence of hospital acquire infection, Australia had developed an
Australian surveillance project that will aim to compare the rate of hospital acquired infection
among different hospital and identify the most leading cause of the infection within
Australian hospitals.
The first strategy identified for controlling the prevalence of hospital acquired
infection is hand hygiene technique. Large population of patient’s die because of hospital
acquired infection while receiving treatment or health care. Hands are considered as the
primary pathway of acquiring infection as direct contact of germ transmission can take place.
Hence, hand hygiene is the most crucial technique that can be used or practiced to avoid any
direct contamination of germs and to prevent the prevalence of hospital acquired infection.

3NURSING LEADERSHIP
According to Wold Health Organization, hand hygiene is considered as the significant
method to reduce hospital acquired infection (Apps.who.int, 2019). Five different moments
for hand hygiene were established by world health organization that included following the
procedure of hand hygiene before direct contacting with the patient, before aseptic technique,
after any body fluid contact risk, after contacting with the patient and their surroundings.
Different strategies under hand hygiene was highlighted by world health organization that
assist the healthcare providers or nurses to reduce the risk of infection. The nurses and
healthcare professionals must clean their hands by using alcohol-based sanitizers and adapt
this under their routine hygiene practice (Who.int, 2019). They can also wash their hand
using soap and water if they are dealing with any fluid discharge from the patient body.
Hence, two major approaches are included in hand hygiene strategy including hand rub
technique using antiseptic sanitizers and hand wash technique using soap and water. Hand
hygiene strategy will help the hospital management to effectively deal with hospital acquired
infection as the nurse and healthcare professionals will be educated on the benefits and
advantage of practicing hand hygiene strategy before and after any contact with the patient.
The implementation of hand hygiene will be initiated by providing adequate education and
knowledge to the staff members and doctors of the hospital. Training will be conducted for
the patients, staff, visitors and family members that will focus on the concept of hand hygiene
and the advantage of using hand hygiene to reduce the risk of infection (Van der Meer et al.,
2015). Different brochures, pocket cards and posters will be used for the training process in
the ward. A constant observation and feedback is conducted on the rate of infection and a
separate multidisciplinary team is established, who will supervise and administer the process
of hand hygiene method. In the ward, monitoring program is set up that will look into the
implementation and monitoring of the technique. If the nurse is assessing the patient they
must use hand rub method by using effective sanitizers to avoid the risk of infection and even