University Report: Infection Prevention and Control Policy Development

This report delves into the realm of health policy, specifically focusing on infection prevention and control within the Australian healthcare system. It defines health policy and its significance in shaping healthcare goals. The report then concentrates on the infection prevention and control policy, detailing its objectives, scope within the NSW Health organization, and the crucial role of risk management. It outlines risk identification and mitigation requirements, emphasizing standard precautions, hand hygiene, and the use of personal protective equipment (PPE). Antimicrobial stewardship is also discussed. Furthermore, the report assesses the impact of these policies on the Australian healthcare system, highlighting the Australian Guidelines for the Prevention and Control of Infection in Healthcare and their role in improving patient outcomes and aligning with national safety standards. The study concludes by summarizing the importance of infection control policies in safeguarding public health.

Running head: POLICY DEVELOPMENT
POLICY DEVELOPMENT
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author note:

1POLICY DEVELOPMENT
Introduction
Health Policy is defined as the action and decision plan that are used and considered
to achieve definite healthcare gaols in society (Allsop, 2018). Health policy plays a crucial
role in describing the country’s policy, vision and strategy in order to ensure the well-being
of the population. The development and execution of national health policies is a dynamic
and complex process that requires detail knowledge and understanding of the general
population (Herzig et al., 2016). This study will focus on infection prevention and control
policy, highlighting the scope of the programme and what will be the impact of the policy in
nursing and healthcare system of Australia.
Infection prevention and control policy
Infection prevention and control policy aim to safeguard the trust which will provide
an effective system and environment of care that will, in turn, minimise or reduce the threat
of infection to staff, patients and visitors. Under this policy, the recommendation from an
expert or specialist advice can be communicated to the people of the general population
(Www1.health.nsw.gov.au, 2019). The infection prevention and control policy consist of a
team that will be responsible for advising people regarding the benefit of implementing the
policy, supporting local management and government to prevent the onset of any infection,
support the patient and employees dealing with infection control and providing surveillance
for estimating the infection rate and illness. The primary objective of Infection prevention
and control policy is as follows (Uhb.nhs.uk, 2019):
 To safeguard that every staff recognise their responsibilities associated with the
inhibition and control of contamination within the Trust.
 To construct relevant framework and principles associated with the implementation of
the policy.

2POLICY DEVELOPMENT
 To safeguard agreement with the national guidance and policy associated with
infection inhibition and control.
 To guarantee that every staff members understand the significance of accurate
medical device sanitisation and procedures that are associated with the inhibition and
regulation of the contamination within the Trust.
Scope of the Policy
The infection control and prevention policy directive should be executed in the NSW
Health Organization. The scope of infection control and prevention policy are as follows
(Nhmrc.gov.au, 2019):
 Necessities for the inhibition of infection and control program
 Reusing of ecological, medical devices and tools
 Approaches for prevention and administration of hand-associated infection (HAI)
including the infection triggered by multidrug-resistant organisms (MROs) and
infections
 Infection inhibition and control occurrences and risk
 Direction on authority and superiority monitoring
 Supervising the animals in the form of patients
 Standard and communication-based protections
 Outbursts of communicable infections and infectious diseases
Risk Management
The public health organization (PHO) that is planning to implement the infection
control and prevention policy must use and practice the risk management agenda that will
help the PHO in identifying the collective and individual risk factors for any specific
situation, the procedure and the management strategy to decrease the threat of hand-

3POLICY DEVELOPMENT
associated infection (HAIs). The primary focus of determining and identifying the risk factors
will help the healthcare providers to safeguard that suitable control strategy is implemented in
order to safeguard the patients, staff members and visitors present within the organisation and
also providing effective clinical care associated with mental support (World Health
Organization, 2016). Incident management and educating the staff members and other
healthcare providers are included in risk management.
Risk identification requirements
Evaluating the risk of infection among the person is determined by performing and
completing the requirements under risk identification and accordingly asses the level of threat
within the organisation. The primary step included in this procedure is to perform the risk
assessment for the patient present within the hospital surrounding and based on the severity
of the risk, the infection prevention and control policy is implemented for treating the patient.
Communicable infections and infectious diseases are susceptible to causing infection and
transmission of any disease. The risk are classified under four different categories, namely
extreme risk, high risk, medium risk and low risk. Hence, based on the four categories, the
patient and staff members are assessed for any outbreak of disease (Naslund et al., 2016).
Risk mitigation requirements
Risk mitigation is defined as the procedure or steps that are required to reduce the rate
of disease or illness within the healthcare organisation. The standard precautions are the
primary step included in the risk mitigation requirement. Standard precaution is defined as
the minimal infection prevention method that is applied within the patient care surrounding
and must be implemented with carefulness (World Health Organization, 2017). The steps
included under the standard precautions should be followed by the healthcare providers
regularly while dealing with any patients irrespective of any illness. Eight different steps that

4POLICY DEVELOPMENT
are included under the standard precaution of risk mitigation requirement, which is as follows
(Wager, Lee & Glaser, 2017):
 Implement hand hygiene
 The practice of personal protective equipment (PPE)
 The practice of the sterilized method
 Safe practice and clearance of sharp objects
 Executing repetitive environmental cleaning
 Washing and cleaning of shared apparatus’s
 Cough etiquette and respiratory hygiene
 Safe disposal and handling of surplus
Antimicrobial Stewardship
Antimicrobial stewardship is well-defined as the procedure and practice of
antimicrobial agents under the anti-microbial therapy for treating a patient and preventing
from any healthcare-associated infection. The public health organisation (PHO) are
accountable for conducting anti-microbial therapy and ensuring the safety and care towards
the patient (Dyar et al., 2017).
Hand hygiene and personal protective equipment
Hand hygiene activity is one of the most crucial steps included under standard
precaution of risk mitigation. Effective hand hygiene strategy recommends that the healthcare
providers and staff members should clean their hand after evaluating every patient that will
reduce the risk of any infection. The practice of alcohol-based hand rub (ABHR), running
water, antiseptic handwash, liquid soap and surgical hand scrub is included under the hand
hygiene protocol (Gould et al., 2017). The personal protective equipment is selected by the
healthcare providers based on the risk or threat of any communicable disease and infectious

5POLICY DEVELOPMENT
agents that will, in turn, increase the rate of hand–associated infection. Personal protective
equipment’s comprise of gloves, masks, aprons, gowns, facial protection, eyewear protection,
aseptic technique, environmental cleaning, safe disposal and practice of sharp objects and
respiratory hygiene (Tomas et al., 2015).
Impact of infection control and prevention policy on the Australian healthcare system
The health commission had established different types of guidance brochures that will
support the employment of operative infection control and prevention policy with appropriate
control prevention and practice. Healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) is considered as one
of the primary cause that leads to decreased patient outcome and care as the rate of HAI is
more prevalent within the Australian healthcare organisation. Therefore, the Australian
healthcare system had accepted and implemented the policy within the country’s healthcare
unit under the name of Australian Guidelines for the Prevention and Control of Infection in
Healthcare (Sahealth.sa.gov.au, 2019). These strategies had proved to be effective in
supporting the National Safety and Quality Health Service Standard, which deals with the
inhibition and control of healthcare-associated infection (HAIs). This policy also helps the
healthcare providers and staff members within the organisation to improve the procedure and
protocol of infection prevention and control. The Australian Guidelines for the Prevention
and Control of Infection in Healthcare is developed by the joint input and strategy of the
commission and the NHMRC (Safetyandquality.gov.au, 2019).
Conclusion
This study had exhibited the concept of health policy that is used as the mode to
strengthen, clarify and arrange the health services that will aim to reduce or prevent the
disease that is effecting the general population of the country. Infection prevention and
control policy is exhibited in this study that will focus on preventing the hand-associated

6POLICY DEVELOPMENT
infection. The standard guidelines that is included under the policy is exhibited which
comprise of risk management, identification and mitigating strategies. The study concludes
by highlighting the impact of the infection control and prevention policy in the nursing and
healthcare system of Australia.

7POLICY DEVELOPMENT
References
Allsop, J. (2018). Health policy and the NHS: towards 2000. Routledge.
Dyar, O. J., Huttner, B., Schouten, J., & Pulcini, C. (2017). What is antimicrobial
stewardship?. Clinical Microbiology and Infection, 23(11), 793-798.
Gould, D. J., Moralejo, D., Drey, N., Chudleigh, J. H., & Taljaard, M. (2017). Interventions
to improve hand hygiene compliance in patient care. Cochrane database of systematic
reviews, (9)
Herzig, C. T., Stone, P. W., Castle, N., Pogorzelska-Maziarz, M., Larson, E. L., & Dick, A.
W. (2016). Infection prevention and control programs in US nursing homes: results of
a national survey. Journal of the American Medical Directors Association, 17(1), 85-
88.
Naslund, M., Phillips, S., Surridge, M., Moraru, M., Heikkinen, S., Pernila, T., ... & Valero,
A. J. (2016). 5G-ENSURE-D2. 3 Risk Assessment, Mitigation and Requirements
(draft).
Nhmrc.gov.au. (2019). Australian Guidelines for the Prevention and Control of Infection in
Healthcare (2010) | NHMRC. Retrieved 3 August 2019, from
https://www.nhmrc.gov.au/about-us/publications/australian-guidelines-prevention-
and-control-infection-healthcare-2010#toc__651
Safetyandquality.gov.au. (2019). Australian Infection Prevention and Control Guidelines |
Australia Commission on Safety and Quality in Healthcare. Retrieved 3 August 2019,
from https://www.safetyandquality.gov.au/our-work/healthcare-associated-infection/
national-infection-control-guidelines
Sahealth.sa.gov.au. (2019). Healthcare associated infections :: SA Health. Retrieved 3 August
2019, from

8POLICY DEVELOPMENT
https://www.sahealth.sa.gov.au/wps/wcm/connect/public+content/sa+health+internet/
clinical+resources/clinical+topics/healthcare+associated+infections
Tomas, M. E., Kundrapu, S., Thota, P., Sunkesula, V. C., Cadnum, J. L., Mana, T. S. C., ... &
Ray, A. J. (2015). Contamination of health care personnel during removal of personal
protective equipment. JAMA internal medicine, 175(12), 1904-1910.
Uhb.nhs.uk. (2019). Infection prevention and control policy. Retrieved 3 August 2019, from
https://www.uhb.nhs.uk/Downloads/pdf/controlled-documents/InfectionPreventionAn
dControl.pdf
Wager, K. A., Lee, F. W., & Glaser, J. P. (2017). Health care information systems: a
practical approach for health care management. John Wiley & Sons.
World Health Organization. (2016). Guidelines on core components of infection prevention
and control programmes at the national and acute health care facility level. World
Health Organization.
World Health Organization. (2017). Safe management of wastes from health-care activities:
a summary (No. WHO/FWC/WSH/17.05). World Health Organization.
Www1.health.nsw.gov.au. (2019). Infection prevention and control policy. Retrieved 3
August 2019, from https://www1.health.nsw.gov.au/pds/Pages/doc.aspx?
dn=PD2017_013