Deciding when to decontaminate your hand can be a little bit daunting. This is why, therefore, guidelines have been made to highlight the four key factors in hand hygiene to help workers and patients decide when to decontaminate their hands. Healthcare workers needs to anticipate the level of contact with patients or objects to eliminate the chance of developing further pathogen related disease. Furthermore, workers also need to foresee the extent of contamination that can occur with the contact and patient’s various care activities being performed (Boyce and Pittet, 2002, Pratt et al, 2001). There is without doubt, that these factors have set a foundation to promote a safe hand hygiene practice without guessing when and where to decontaminate.
The Joint Commission (2012) defines risk management in healthcare as “the clinical and administrative acts undertaken to identify and evaluate the risk of injury to staff, patients and visitors and the risk to loss of the organization itself”. Studies have shown that the litigation against nursing homes is on the rise; thus making risk management very important in day to day care. Malpractice insurance premiums for nursing homes are also on the rise; this contributes to bankruptcy and forces many facilities to operate without malpractice coverage (Weinburg M.D & Levine, 2008). This threatens quality of care and access to healthcare for ill elderly people that need round the clock care. Effective risk management in a nursing home requires one to accurately
Also mentioned, is the increased risk of localized hypothermia and risk for infection as wet gauze to the wound can cause vasoconstriction and in theory, also decrease leukocyte mobility and efficiency of phagocytes. Gauze fibers may also be retained in the wound bed further increasing risk of infection. Lastly, the author suggests that the use of wet to dry dressings are not cost effective since they are labor intensive, require secondary dressings to contain exudate, and usually require nursing care within the community. The article closes by saying that further research is needed to fully understand the impact that dressing selection has in wound healing but suggests that practitioners should question the continued use of wet to dry dressings. Currently, Greenville Hospital System’s policy for healing of wounds by second intention is best met with the use of wet to dry dressings.
Ethically, it is the duty of the HCO’s under the umbrella of the CDC, to design/develop strategies to prevent diseases. The three moral standards that fits into this is: benevolence, Non-maleficence and justice (Cookson). The healthcare organization is ethically responsible for preventing disease as a means of the prescribing act which leads to healing, and this describes the benevolence moral/ethical standard. The non-maleficence of ethical standard states” First do no harm” When the HCO fail to develop strategies to prevent diseases, they are causing harm to the patient who is exposed to all kinds of infectious diseases that can lead to death. The last ethical standard that proves why the HCO should engage in disease prevention is “Justice”.
The layout of the operating department itself and the route patients will use is determined by infection control, ensuring safety to both patients and practitioners (Barrow, C 2009). Patients usually follow the same route through the operating department; transfer to anaesthetic room, transfer to operating theatre, transfer to recovery unit (or intensive care unit if required) and then transferred to the ward (NHS Estates 2005). The operating department layout ensures patients are not exposed to unnecessary infection risks by being comprised of three zones (dirty, clean and sterile) (Barrow, C 2009), limiting air movement from human traffic whether patients or practitioners through these zones is “designed to reduce cross-contamination” (Woodhead & Fudge 2012). The layout of the surgical suite within the operating department is constructed to optimise patient care with efficiency of corridor lengths between sterile storage and operating room, material handling and personnel areas (Berry & Kohn 2013). How does the overall appearance of the Operating Department influence patient care delivery?
Nurses must be sure that they do not contribute to infection risks and must take care to prevent infection whenever possible. Much of this is through basic nursing care such as ensuring the patient is clean and their skin is intact, the mouth is healthy, promoting mobility, promoting continence, improving the patients’ nutritional and hydration status
Enhancing patient safety also contributes to the overall success of the healthcare facility (Potter & Perry, 2013, p.370). Patient safety is a sensitive topic that I feel that must be discussed and addressed very often. The purpose of this paper is providing awareness to patient safety, and how medical errors and lack of safety can compensate patient safety. Review of Literature Patient safety is a growing concern
This all means that the ethical quality of health care is profoundly influenced by the ethics of organizations and therefore we cannot have ethical health care without ethical organizations. Complexity is a common denominator among today’s health care organizations. As such, this highly competitive market driven environment has led health care organizations to be very discriminatory in the management of critical issues which have the potential to cast a negative shadow on an organization or even lead to its demise. Despite the Joint Commission for Accreditation of Health Care’s (JCAHO) recognition that health care organizations have high potential for
The issue of giving mental health patient rights is a rather controversial one, as often the right of the patient to refuse certain treatment or care may result in serious health consequences for the patient and can be seen as neglect of the healthcare provider. According to researchers and healthcare providers, when a mental health patient is admitted to a healthcare facility, he/she may lose certain abilities, most notably: * The ability to schedule time; * The ability to choose and control his/her activities; * Ability to manage financial and legal affairs; * Ability to make important decisions (Cady, 2010, p. 117). The abilities, mentioned above, are important for decision making and may result in serious health consequences for the patient, so leading health professionals and researchers distinguish between the forms of mental disorders and the extentto which they affect people, differentiating between competent and incompetent patients. According to Buchanan (2004), legal competence requires the following capacities, most notably: * To reason and deliberate; * Hold appropriate goals and values; * Appreciate one’s circumstances; * Understand
For example, If we notice a client has a sore spot at the base of the spine and we fail to report it or apply cream to it, in a very short space of time it could develop into a pressure sore which is neglient. Aiii WHAT HAVING A DUTY OF CARE MEANS FOR A CARE GIVING ORGANSIATION Organisations must do as much as is reasonable possible to keep individuals safe from harm. This can be achieved by providing policies and proccedures to keep all in the setting safe. Respond to reports and complaints, address any risk. Included in the policies and proceedures the organsiation needs to be aware of dangers, carrying out risk assessment, respecting the individuals right to make risky choices ( after you have done all that is possible to dissuade them), take actions to keep individuals safe and log and report any dangers or problems.