Infection Report: Hazards Faced by Nurses in Hospitals

This report focuses on the occupational hazards faced by nurses in healthcare settings, primarily within hospitals. It highlights the risks associated with exposure to infectious diseases, such as Hepatitis B and Hepatitis A, as well as other pathogens like measles, influenza, and mumps. The report also addresses the potential for transmission of Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) and other body fluids from infected patients. Additionally, the report briefly mentions other hazards faced by nurses, including the use of contaminated needles, and the potential for workplace stress, violence, and shift work. The report emphasizes the importance of understanding and mitigating these risks to protect the health and safety of healthcare professionals.

Running head: INFECTION
Infection
Name of the student:
Name of the university:
Author note:

1INFECTION
Environmental hazards in the hospitals due to infections
Nursing is an occupation that is mostly hazardous. This post discusses some hazards that the
nurses used to face during their job. Nurses face various types of issues in the hospital such as
exposure to the infectious diseases, effect of the toxic substances, radiation and injuries at the
back. They are also prone to other kinds of hazards such as stress, violence and working in
shift. Here is a description about the infectious diseases (Loveday et al. 2014).
The occurrence of the risk of the infections is to be found not only in the hospitals but also in
the community centres or the settings where the nurse used to work such as community
health centre, nursing homes, prison hospital, and many more. The risk areas in the hospitals
are wards of infectious disease, pediatric areas and emergency rooms (Chaudhari et al. 2016).
Issues
1. Hepatitis B is the most affected infectious disease in the hospitals. It is transmitted by
mainly by blood, semen, faeces and saliva. The transmission of the virus may also be
caused from the contaminated needle or upon ingestion by any mistake.
2. Hepatitis A also possesses a big risk for the workers in the settings where the personal
hygiene of the patients is very poor.
3. The nurses are also prone to other infectious diseases measles, influenza and mumps.
4. Human immunodeficiency virus is also a big issue which causes infection to the body
or the body fluids from an infected person to the nurses.

2INFECTION
References
Loveday, H.P., Wilson, J., Pratt, R.J., Golsorkhi, M., Tingle, A., Bak, A., Browne, J., Prieto,
J. and Wilcox, M., 2014. epic3: national evidence-based guidelines for preventing healthcare-
associated infections in NHS hospitals in England. Journal of Hospital Infection, 86, pp.S1-
S70. url http://web.a.ebscohost.com/abstract?
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Chaudhari, J., Makwana, H., Gajjar, M., Srivastava, A. and Thakor, A., 2016. Attitude and
Practices Towards Needle Stick Injuryamongst Postgraduate Students at a Tertiary Care
Hospital. Indian Journal of Forensic Medicine & Toxicology, 10(2). url:
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0195670113600122