Implementing evidence in clinical settings
Chronic patients who are receiving comprehensive care from several health practitioners are vulnerable to hospital-acquired infections which increase their mortality and mobility rate (Fox et al., 2015). Hospital-acquired infections have costly effects on the stakeholders involved from finances, legal issues, depression to shattering of goals of achieving utmost positive patient outcomes. Therefore, nurses as the main caregiver in the healthcare system have the duty of reducing the prevalence of these infections by improving the quality of care and general hospital hygiene. One of the interventions which can be used to curb hospital-acquired infection is hand hygiene and making sure all the health practitioners and subordinate staffs have observed this measure on a daily basis.
Vision
Hospital-acquired infections affect the wellbeing of patients by increasing their medical cost, stay in the hospital and discontinued temporarily their lives since they have to seek further treatment for the new health complications (Fox et al., 2015). On the other hand, the hospital together with the health practitioners risks legal consequences and deregistration if patients choose to sue the hospital and its workers. Additionally, the hospital may not get federal reimbursement due to these infections which could have been prevented in the first place if due diligence was taken by the management. Thus, there is need to implement evidence-based practice to highlight the prevalence hospital infections and the effectiveness of hand hygiene in curbing this problem.
The staffs need to be educated on the problem the hospital is facing i.e. hospital-acquired infections and proposed interventions to address the issue (Hockenbery et al., 2007). It is essential for the workers to recognize their contribution to the problem and what they ought to do to prevent the occurrences of the problem in future. Therefore, there is the need to change the culture of the hospital by ensuring hand hygiene is a normal practice in the institutions. The management needs to provide resources which can be used to collect and analyze data (Hockenbery et al., 2007). The staff with vast experience in this area can analyze and critic evidence provided to ensure when the intervention is implemented it achieve its goals. Additionally, this intervention needs to be incorporated in hospital’s policy and code of conduct.
Integrate EBP and nourish the culture
The team leading this intervention needs to continue with the education concerning this initiative on how it can be implemented throughout the hospital (Hockenbery et al., 2007). Hence, manuals detailing implementation process and how to overcome barriers associated this initiative need to be disseminated to every department (Hockenbery et al., 2007). Additionally, the management needs to provide detergent, disinfectants, gloves, water and towels which can improve hand hygiene. Positive messages concerning this practice need to be pinned on the walls and organization’s website to remind practitioners to observe this measure.
Evaluate the evidence
It is important to evaluate the effectiveness of this program to assess whether the objectives of the initiative were achieved or not (Hockenbery et al., 2007). Clinical records can be used to assess the interventions by checking the number of reported cases of hospital-acquired infections since the implementation of the program and improvement of the safety standards. The program can also be evaluated on general environmental changes whereby how long it took to change the policy of the organization and staff adherence to the new regulations (Hockenbery et al., 2007).
Reference
Fox, C., Wavra, T., Drake, D. A., Mulligan, D., Bennett, Y. P., Nelson, C., & Bader, M. K. (2015). Use of a Patient Hand Hygiene Protocol to Reduce Hospital-Acquired Infections and Improve Nurses’ Hand Washing. American Journal of Critical Care, 24(3), 216-224.
Hockenbery, M., Walden, M., Brown, T., & Barrera, P. (2007). Creating an evidence based environment: One hospital’s journey. Journal of Nursing Care Quality, 22(3), 223.
