Prevention of Nosocomial Infections Health, Medicine, Nursing Essay (Essay Sample)

Prevention of Nosocomial Infections
Student’s Name
Institutional Affiliation
Prevention of Nosocomial Infections
Nosocomial infections also referred to as hospital-acquired infections (HAIs) are bacterial, viral or fungal infections that a patient gets from within the hospital environment (Fernado, Gray & Gottlieb, 2017). The management of nosocomial infections has been made difficult by the rising rates of multi-drug resistant infections which are difficult to treat, and therefore if not treated they continue to spread from one patient to another. Treatment of these infections is difficult, and therefore it’s better to prevent them before they occur (Fernado et al., 2017). One of the common multi-drug resistant micro-organisms which cause nosocomial infections includes Clostridium deficile (Kirtil & Akyuz, 2018). Also, there are patient characteristics which contribute to the risk of getting nosocomial infections such as immunity, age, nutritional status, and medications (Fernado et al., 2017). Patients with a weak immune system and especially those with immune-suppressive illnesses such as HIV are more likely to acquire nosocomial infections than others. Also, the nutritional status of a person may contribute to the chances of contracting nosocomial infections.
Problem Statement
A nosocomial infection, essentially, refers to a disease that is usually contracted in the hospital (Stone, 2015). Also known as healthcare-associated infections, nosocomial infections present a pervasive challenge in the contemporary healthcare setting, with an estimated 2 million patients acquiring an infection. Furthermore, nosocomial infections are now ranked as the fifth leading cause of death in the United States with an estimated 90, 000 deaths reported annually (Stone, 2015). Apart from the human suffering, the financial burden that accompanies the conditions is also staggering. This paper aims to critically examine the effectiveness of different interventions in the prevention of nosocomial infections.