Archive for the ‘Childrens Hospital’ Category
Guidelines on How to Prevent Infection during Hospital Stays.
MRSA or methicillin resistant staphylococcus aureus is a mutated form of the staphylococcus bacteria that is resistant to most forms of antibiotics. This means that even if antibiotics are used to treat the infection, there is no effect on the bacteria, allowing it to flourish. With this, infectious agents spread throughout the body resulting in life threatening illnesses such as septicemia, meningitis, pneumonia, endocarditis and osteomyelitis.
The Rules on How to Prevent Infection during Hospital Stays.
There are two possible victims in being exposed to the dreaded MRSA bacteria, you as the patient and the medical personnel. Both can even be carriers for others to be infected by cross contamination. Thus, to prevent infection from affecting you as the patient, the medical specialist overseeing your care, your visitors with their families and the other patients in the hospital, here are some guidelines to follow.
Respectfully request that hospital staff use antiseptic on their hands before treating you. Also ask guests and visitors to use antiseptic before leaving your room to prevent being a carrier. When your doctor is about to use their stethoscope, respectfully ask that the instruments diaphragm be wiped down with antiseptic. This is to prevent on skin transfer of the bacteria through commonly used equipment. If you are too embarrassed to ask, make sure you wipe down the area where the stethoscope touched your skin to immediately neutralize the bacteria. If you are to be inserted with a “central line” catheter, or any kind of catheter for that matter, inquire about the use of an antibiotic impregnated or silver chlorhexidine coated catheter to reduce and minimize infection-causing bacteria from entering the body. If surgery is the reason why you are in the hospital, inquire about the infection rate of the doctor to conduct the surgery. If the doctor has a high infection rate, or refuses to disclose this fact, then seek the services of another surgeon. Prepare for the surgery. This preparation can be done by showering daily with the use of 4% chlorhexidine soap. This active ingredient neutralizes the presence of MRSA bacteria on the skin to avoid entering the body with the surgery. Ask your surgeon to test you for the presence of MRSA at least one week prior to surgery. This preventive measure would be a sure way to eliminate the presence of MRSA on your skin. Quit smoking weeks before surgery. Studies indicate that patients who smoke are three times as likely to develop surgical area infection compared to non-smokers resulting in longer hospital stays and slower recoveries. Come the day of the surgical procedure, remind your medical care personnel, be it a nurse or a doctor for antibiotic medication prior to actual incision. Often this is overlooked with all the preparation needed for the surgery. Inquire from your doctor as to the process of surgery, paying special attention to the tools to be used and the temperature of the operating room due to surgery. Asking about the tools to be used would make the surgeon wary of the cleanliness of the tools and equipment. Also, keeping the room warm are found to be able to resist infection better compared to cold operating rooms. Avoid having the surgical area shaved as the blade may cause small wounds where bacteria can enter. Ask that clippers be used to remove hair instead of a razor.
Hospital infection high in poor nations
The number of hospital-acquired infections in developing countries is more than three times higher than the rate in the US, and more than double the rate in Europe.
According to the findings published in The Lancet, the infection rate in developing countries is 15.5 per 100 patients, whereas the rate is as low as 7.1 in Europe and 4.5 in the US.
In the intensive care units (ICUs), the condition is reported to be more severe, with 47.9 per 1,000 patient-days in developing countries, compared to 13.6 in the US, World Health Organization (WHO) researchers said.
“Health care-associated infections have long been established as the biggest cause of avoidable harm and unnecessary death in the health systems of high income countries. We now know that the situation in developing countries is even worse,” said Benedetta Allegranzi, Technical Lead for the Clean Care is Safer Care program at the WHO and co-author of the study.
“One in three patients having surgery in some settings with limited resources becomes infected. Solutions exist, and the time to act is now. The cost of delay is even more lives tragically lost,” WHO officials said.
Researchers believe simple and inexpensive measures such as hand hygiene, surveillance, and staff education could reduce the number of hospital-acquired infections and their related toll in developing countries.
Allegranzi, et al. (2010) report that they conducted a literature search of papers published from 1995 to 2008 and included in their review studies containing full or partial data from developing countries related to infection prevalence or incidence, including overall HAI and major infection sites and their microbiological cause.
The researchers report that of 271 selected articles, 220 were included in the final analysis. Limited data were retrieved from some regions and many countries were not represented. 118 (54 percent) studies were low quality. In general, infection frequencies reported in high-quality studies were greater than those from low-quality studies. Prevalence of HAIs was much higher than proportions reported from Europe and the U.S. Pooled overall HAI density in adult intensive-care units was 47·9 per 1,000 patient-days (95% CI 36·7—59·1), at least three times as high as densities reported from the U.S. Surgical site infection was the leading infection in hospitals (pooled cumulative incidence 5·6 per 100 surgical procedures), strikingly higher than proportions recorded in developed countries. Gram-negative bacilli represented the most common nosocomial isolates. Apart from methicillin resistance, noted in 158 of 290 (54 percent) Staphylococcus aureus isolates (in eight studies), very few articles reported antimicrobial resistance.
The researchers conclude that the burden of HAIs in developing countries is significant and that their findings indicate a need to improve surveillance and infection control practices
There are four identified factors which are distinct areas these are different ranges which affect the growth and development of the human body these, four distinct areas are social and economic, health, genetics and environment.
The factors of the environment are the way in which we live which has huge affects on our lifestyle and the behavior we act. The outside effects are in some inner cities such as the U.K which has become unpleasant to live in due to the increase of air pollution from vehicle exhausts, factories, littering, tipping, dog fowling etc. Other factors of the environment are poverty and unemployment, poor living conditions for those who are on low incomes, discrimination against ethnic or disabled people is reduced with the introduction of the relevant statutes e.g. improvements in access for people with impaired mobility and equal opportunities for all. The agricultural environment also imposes problems for families which have unemployment or have low incomes so transport and housing will be difficult to secure, radiation from atomic bomb explosions that happened years ago, nuclear power stations and x-rays and also climate changes with this environment lifestyle it will effect the growth and development. Dental and hospital x-rays when pregnant can harm the growth and development of an unborn child. The inside effects on the factors of environment are drugs, alcohol, taking medication during pregnancy, smoking and poor diet. Smoking, drug taking and drinking will damage the insides of the human body because of the substances that are inside these factors. Taking medication when pregnant may harm the baby as well as the mother because during pregnancy the mother does tend to be weaker than normal.
The factors of genetics are that characteristics are passed on from the biological parents to the child these characteristics include the skin, eye and hair color the height of the child and facial features also sometimes the ability to run fast. Illnesses can also be passed on such as cystic fibrosis, haemophilia, Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, luntingdons cohorea. The tendency towards other conditions like asthma, eczema, diabetes, hearing and visual impairments, glucoma, heart disease or a heart murmur can seem to be inherited.
The factors of health are good health which is a healthy balanced diet which will ensure the growth and development. A large intake food can lead to obesity and a small quantity of food can lead to anorexia these will both affect the growth and development of the human body involving the role of maturation which I have described in P1. Good health such as good speech, eyesight, hearing, keeping fit and a generally good life style will benefit the growth and development that are body’s go through where as bad speech, bad skin, bad hearing, bad eyesight, no exercise, always being ill, not eating properly and inherited disease can have huge affects on the body’s growth and development. Being ill all the time will have huge affects on children later in life as they will be missing a lot of school and therefore all the areas of development are affected, through missing school children will miss opportunities to learn, develop and build on skills that maybe useful later on.
The factors which occur for social and economic growth development are gender, family, education, culture and income. With gender people have different expectations on what girls and boys should and shouldn’t do e.g. people think that only boys should play football. Some males believe that a woman’s place is in the home. In some cultures the boy’s opinions are valued more than the girl’s but the girl’s opinion doesn’t matter. People have different sexualities such as being gay, lesbian and bisexual and some people frown upon this. Family expectations may be set for a child and the child may not like this would mean that a problem would occur in the family and this would cause family arguments. Family arguments are not just about the expectations of the family but many other reasons too e.g. other members of the family having different opinions on a tough situation, this may also cause the family to fall out then other family members who get involved will be seen to be taking sides. Divorced parents may give problems for their offspring because of different routines or maybe the parents talk bad about or to the other parent sometimes in anger. To a child a step family would be a problem because they will be just getting to know this new step parent and the child may become insecure due to them thinking that this step parent is trying to replace their real parent. Parents try to teach their children values and skills also including their beliefs for later on in life this would be the difference between right and wrong, the use of bad/fowl language and the correct way to behave etc. Education in school, on visits or travelling etc, is given to a child will help the child to reach their potential by using an appropriate stimulation, by giving children opportunities and by encouraging a positive self-image. There is a variety of cultures and in these cultures their religious beliefs and their way of life can affect development. Some cultures arrange marriages for their offspring, some cultures forbid eating certain foods and some have a certain dress code and have to cover up most of the body where as others are not about what parts of the body that you can or cannot show. Income plays a big part in every day life this will affect personal development. People who live in poverty and have poor housing and diet because this is all that they can afford are more likely to suffer ill health; these people are unlikely to get involved in leisure activities. People on low income will notice that this has a dramatic affect on day to day life e.g. can not pay for transport, not very well dressed and it’s hard to fund for new clothes and not able to get the latest technology e.g. if a child has homework a computer would help with this especially in high school and collage etc.