Infection Prevention and Control in Hospitals: A Research Report

This report focuses on infection prevention and control within hospital environments. It explores the rationale behind such research, emphasizing the need for knowledge extension in the medical field, strengthening nursing practices, and identifying factors contributing to infections. The study hypothesizes that there is no significant relationship between protective equipment and infection control indicators. The objective is to identify causes, types, and prevention strategies, using surveys and systematic reviews, incorporating microbiology. Data collection involved surveys of patients, healthcare professionals, and housekeeping staff, along with a systematic review of patient conditions. Findings revealed sources of infection like poor hand hygiene and lack of proper protective equipment. The report concludes with recommendations for improved hand hygiene, sterilization, and the role of infection control link nurses, advocating for future research on this topic.

Running Head: Infection prevention and control in hospitals 1
Infection prevention and control
Student’s Name
Institution
Date

Infection prevention and control 2
Acknowledgement
I would like to thank Almighty God for His sustenance and granting me knowledge and the
strength to accomplish this research. Secondly, I thank my Parents for their support to undertake
this course and their unceasing prayers. Your support to my life cannot be paid back and thus I
pray that you receive more blessings. Thirdly, to my lecture Mr/Mrs /Miss ……………..., thank
you for generously sharing your knowledge and imparting on me the skills needed for me to
complete this course. Lastly, I would like to thank my friends for their support and
encouragement while partaking this task. I sincerely thank you all.
A lot of gratitude from me
Merylin Malik

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Infection prevention and control in hospitals
Introduction
No health facility can claim that they are infection-free towards their staff and patients. Infection
prevention and control in hospitals is a very essential topic in the modern age, that needs a lot of
research work. We decided to carry out research on this topic for knowledge extension in the
medical field, to strengthen the quality of nursing practice, to identify the contributing factors
towards infections and associated ways of preventing the high rate of infections occur in
hospitals.
The rationale
The rationale behind knowledge extension in the medical field is that all members need to be
aware of the reasons behind infections in hospitals and know how to curb them. There is a high
need for strengthening nursing practice quality, and this essential because quality knowledge on
infections shall enable nurses and other health professionals to act appropriately towards
infection means. The rationale of identifying the factors that lead to infections is that every
member of the hospitals' surroundings shall be able to know the role they need to play towards
infections after knowing the probable ways that lead to infections. The rationale to prevent the
probable ways that lead to infections is that there is a need for remaining infection free in the
hospital as a staff worker, a health professional or a patient. knowing sources of infection,
enlightening people about them shall enable everyone to play their role in preventing and
controlling infections. For example, there are many surgeries associated with infections. When
the probable cause of the infections is identified, the doctors and the entire surgery team shall
work tirelessly to prevent and reduce theater-based infections to patients.

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Study hypothesis
This study hypothesizes that there is not any significant relationship between protective
equipment in hospitals and indicators that lead to the control of infections. The objective of this
study is to identify the causes of infections in hospitals, their types, and come up with the
probable ways of preventing and controlling infections. This shall be done by collecting data in
Chilleny hospital several survey questions about infections state shall be randomly given to
patients in the wards, a few health professionals and the housekeeping staff. The questions shall
then be analyzed by considering the research hypothesis, cross-tabulation and filtering of the
results, and crunching the numbers. After this, conclusions shall be drawn from the respondents
filled in survey questions.
Discipline related to the study
The other discipline related to this research is microbiology. According to Money (2014),
Microbiology is the study of all microscopic organisms. I find this field relevant because it helps
in the identification of the small microorganisms such as bacteria that lead to hospital-based
infections, and their clinical manifestations. Hospital-based infections arise due to the presence
of bacteria, viruses and other microbes that cannot be identified via the naked eye. Microbiology
can help in easy identification of the microbes, their aspects and how they can be correctly
prevented from causing infections and how they can be treated during an infection.
According to The Lancet Infectious Diseases (2013), and Naidoo (2017), infectious diseases are
of different kinds in hospitals that do not only affect those in hospitals but also its visitors.
Control of infections and prevention is good for the safety and wellbeing of the hospital staff, the
patients and the visitors, (Lennette, Halonen, & Murphy, 2012). Several departments are affected

Infection prevention and control 5
by infections and this can be controlled through methods of quality risk management, health, and
safety clinical governance. healthcare environments should be managed by all hospital
departments by coming up with policies, measures, and practices that can be used to control
infections. Through this study, we shall find out the existing infections, present aspects of
controlling the infections which shall help in bridging the gap between the current infection
control practices. There shall be improved and efficient quality healthcare services.
Data collection
Through this research, I shall use the survey method and systematic review for data collection. A
Survey is a method that ensures a high representation of the whole population under research
which is cost-effective. This method is very convenient in gathering data and has a lot of
statistical significance. Its results are precise with no controversial issues and no subjectivity of
an observer, (Andres, 2012). Systematic reviews reduce bias and provide reliable information
that leads to the making of correct conclusions. Through a systematic review, it is possible to
summarize various research findings on a given topic and also enable identification of
knowledge gaps, offer practical advantages, are less expensive, and at the same time they take a
short period hence time-saving, (Evans, Lasen, & Tsey, 2015)
For the data collection purposes, cross-sectional survey questions were given to 30 patients, 10
health care nurses and 5 house representatives. After they were filled in, the reliability check
was done concerning field experts' suggestions and refined by altering a few questions from the
survey, ("Cross-Sectional Analyses," 2011). The ethical committee from the health facility
approved the results. Also, a systematic review of the patients’ conditions was obtained to get the
reported and treated cases of infections in the hospital. This was also checked for reliability
purpose, reviewed and then approved by the institutional ethical committee. Systematic review

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was done by doing making sure that the appropriate statistical analysis was done, ("development
of a critical appraisal tool for use in systematic reviews addressing questions of prevalence,”) For
survey part, descriptive data analysis was done while case reports were used as a method for the
data analysis for both data collection means. From the survey, the respondents named five to ten
patients knew who suffered infections while in the hospital. Some of these patients suffered
several unexpected disorders and their diseases varied, (Zschocke, Gibson, Brown, Morava, &
Peters, 2012). Case-control studies were then done after similar information was provided from
the two methods. Similar contributing factors to infections were mentioned and via case-control
studies, it could be possible to know their relationship, (Keogh & Cox, 2014). Meta-analysis was
used where the results from surveys and those from systematic reviews were combined to bring
strength to the research question, (Koricheva & Gurevitch, 2013).
Research findings
Various infections were reported from the surveys and the systematic review report. The sources
of infection were reported to be poor hand hygiene and protective equipment. Various protective
equipment was reported to be used and shown no relationship with the infection indicators. This
information was very relevant to this research because it shall help in coming up with ways of
controlling and preventing infections while putting off all the stereotypes of hospital-based
infections.
Conclusions of the study
Conclusions from this study are that there are various infections associated with healthcare
facilities. The infections originate from all staff and patients due to poor hygiene of handling
hands and protective equipment. These infections mostly emerge from bacteria. They can be

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controlled and prevented if all the staff members, the patients and visitors play an effective role
in hospitals and its surroundings.
To prevent infections, handling patients directly should be done with the use of disposable
aprons, ("Healthcare-associated infection: best practice in prevention and control," 2015). This
mostly helps in cases where clothes may be at risk of exposure to body fluids or blood. Proper
hand hygiene should be done by cleaning hands with a sanitizer before touching a client, after
exposure to body fluid, after touching the surroundings of a patient, before an aseptic procedure
and after touching a patient, (Andersen, 2019). Proper sterilization of tools and equipment should
be always done before and after any surgery. This information may reach all parties through day
to day ward to ward education by Infection control link nurses, and also to all staff when
reporting to work. Link nurses have been mandated controlling infections from hospitals,
(Nursing, 2012). My workplace needs a change in how they handle protective equipment to stop
infections by doing proper sanitization all the time, (Singh, 2012).
An area for future research.
Further research is needed on various ways in which infection control link nurses contribute the
infections based on health care and how they are recruited to health facilities.
currency The Lancet Infectious
Diseases (2013).
("Healthcare-associated
infection: best practice in
prevention and control 2015).
Study findings Many infectious diseases are
found in hospitals
There are very many ways of
controlling infections

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Strength of the study Identification of the
infections
Relevance to the objectives Ways of reducing the
infections were identified
Ways of preventing and
controlling diseases were
identified.
Reliability Reliable Reliable
Validity Survey measure Survey measure
Feasibility Associated
information with
The study shall help in
coming up with ways of
reducing the identified
infections
Best practices to cure hospital
based infections were
identified and put into
practice
Conclusions Collaboration should be done
by all team members in
preventing the identified
infections .
These practices should be
exercised by everybody,
including hospital visitors for
proper sanitization and
infection prevention.

Infection prevention and control 9
References
Andersen, B. M. (2019). Prevention and Control of Infections in Hospitals: Practice and
Theory. Basingstoke, CA: Springer.
Andres, L. (2012). Designing and Doing Survey Research. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
Cross-Sectional Analyses. (2011). Analysis of Health Surveys, 235-259.
doi:10.1002/9781118032619.ch6
The development of a critical appraisal tool for use in systematic reviews addressing questions
of prevalence. (n.d.). Retrieved from
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4154549/
Evans, N., Lasen, M., & Tsey, K. (2015). A Systematic Review of Rural Development Research:
Characteristics, Design Quality and Engagement with Sustainability. Basingstoke, CA:
Springer.
Healthcare-associated infection: best practice in prevention and control. (2015, 21). Retrieved
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healthcare-associated-infection-best-practice-in-prevention-and-control/
20068843.article?firstPass=false
Keogh, R. H., & Cox, D. R. (2014). Case-Control Studies. Cambridge, CA: Cambridge
University Press.
Koricheva, J., & Gurevitch, J. (2013). Place of Meta-analysis among Other Methods of
Research Synthesis. Handbook of Meta-analysis in Ecology and Evolution.
doi:10.23943/princeton/9780691137285.003.0001

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The Lancet Infectious Diseases. (2013). The Lancet Infectious Diseases—the state of play. The
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Money, N. P. (2014). Microbiology: A Very Short Introduction. New York, NY: Oxford
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Naidoo, S. (2017). Prevention is better than cure! Southern African Journal of Infectious
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