INFECTION CONTROL

Introduction

The coronavirus (Covid – 19) pandemic is one of the infectious diseases that
spread around the world and become a global health crisis of our time. Uncontrollable
number of death raises and we must work together to slow the spread of this virus. As a
Clinical Care Coordinator of __(name of hospice & address)___, since we have a day to
day contact with patients, we must be aware and knowledgeable about the standard
infection control and transmission based precautions. My team from the nurses to the
maintenance crew must adhere and practice it on their daily routine. Applying infection
control can be a tool to prevent or stops the spread of infections in Home for the aged
where we work. The purpose of this assessment essay is for the health workers to
provided evidence in applying infection control, gathered relevant information based
from their actual observation on their job and its effectiveness to achieve the main goal
by this they can give their insight of their strengths and areas for development. The aim
and the purpose of this paper will focus also in effective observance of standard
precautions, environmental cleaning, and management outbreak.

Body

Our hospice, _(name of hospice & address)__ follow the policy and procedure
implemented by Department of Health Resources on Coronavirus – Australian
Government based from the given link www.health.gov.au this is to control and
minimize the dissemination of infections in hospitals and other healthcare agency with
the main purpose of reducing infection rates and control the number of death cases.

The role of infection control is to prevent and reduce the risk for hospital to
acquired infections. It is proven that it can be achieved if there’s an implementation of
infection control programs. There are several types of infection control methods but our
hospital apply these three effective way to practice infection control are as follows; (1)
Standard precautions, (2) Environmental cleaning, and (3) Management outbreak

Standard precautions: Used for all patient care. It includes correct hand hygiene
it is the most significant precaution that is effective in preventing infection transmission
this is achieved by washing hands with soap and warm water or by hand rubbing with
alcohol or non-alcohol based hand sanitizer. Appropriate and correct use of personal
protective equipment new PPE have to be used for each patient and must be disposed of
after each patient interaction. The safe use and disposal of sharp objects, there must be a
careful practice to be observed in disposing the used sharp objects it must not passed by
hand from one healthcare worker to any other person. All sharps must be disposed of
into a puncture resistant, leak-proof, yellow sharps container immediately after use.
Respiratory hygiene and cough etiquette should be applied as a standard infection
control precaution at all times. Covering sneezes and coughs prevents infected persons
from dispersing respiratory secretions into the air. Hands should be washed with soap
and water after coughing, sneezing, using tissues, or after contact with respiratory
secretions or objects contaminated by respiratory secretions. We posted hygiene and
cough etiquettes poster to our hospital as reminder and to guide accordingly.

Environmental cleaning is always applied in our hospital because we are aware

the hospitals need to attain cleanliness. There should be optimum cleaning standards as
essential component for safety and healthy environment for care recipients, visitors and
staff. Hospital decontamination through the traditional cleaning methods is inefficient
because coronavirus spread rapidly and can be transmitted easily. Newer methods
including steam, antimicrobial surfaces, automated dispersal systems, sterilization
techniques and disinfectants have a better effect in limiting transmission of pathogens
through the surrounding environment like what our hospital did from time to time.

Management outbreak: this infection control method is being applied in our

hospital to control the infection outbreak and minimize the cross-infection risk. Most
outbreaks are a result of direct or indirect contact, infected patients have to be
separated, isolated if needed, and implementation of the necessary contact precautions.
It helps us to control the transmission and prevent the further outbreaks. Management
outbreak becomes effective if the 10 key steps are followed and applied. These are the 10
keys steps that is observe and applied to our hospital: (1) Recognize the outbreak and
prepare to investigate - determining the existence of an outbreak could be helpful
knowing the background of the infectious disease must be known in order to judge
whether this new information is a normal variation in rates or is the onset of an
outbreak. (2) Verify the diagnosis and confirm that an outbreak exists - once the
background rate of infection has been determined, a comparison can be made with the
current infection rate to decide if an outbreak has occurred or is occurring. (3) Establish
a case definition and find cases – first set standard criteria to decide whether or not a
person has the disease. Once a case definition is developed, it is important to review all
care recipients and staff to find cases that meet this definition, then list all the cases and
update the list with new cases as they are identified. (4) Characterize the outbreak by
person, place and time – Documentation must be compiled by a designated staff
member regarding all affected care recipients, staff and visitors. Gather their personal
information for reference and examine the data. (5) Determine who is at risk – identify
the risk groups and the number of people ill or who may become ill and initiate
precautionary measures. (6) Develop a hypothesis of how and why this may have
occurred - develop hypotheses from the information gathered on the potential source of
infection, the vector, the pathogen and/or the route of transmission. (7) Test the
hypotheses - Analyze the data and compare risk factors among ill (cases), and those not
ill, and identify the attack rates. Determine if the hypothesis explains the situation for
the majority of cases. (8) Carry out further studies if necessary - this may include testing
specimens, sputum specimens, environmental samples, food samples or environmental
screening in some situations. (9) Implement ongoing infection prevention and control
measures – observing standard precautions can minimize and prevent the transmission
of coronavirus (Covid 19). (10) Communication findings – write the type and time of
implementation of infection control measures, monitor and not if there’s any changes.
 Proper implementation of infection control to our hospital ensures that our
employees, clients and families are protected against infectious diseases and infections
by providing guidelines for their investigation, control and prevention.

Conclusion

Since the Coronavirus become pandemic and rapidly spread around the world the
Lady of Grace Aged Care is well equipped hospice to cater the needs of our clients. This
paper has shown the positive effect if every hospital apply Infection Control to their
facilities. Our hospital applies this effective infection control for the reason to prevent
and minimize the spread of the virus. We are aware that poor infection control
programs may lead to increased rated of infections. Our employees are doing ways and
means to prevent infection and maintain an aseptic environment for everybody health.
Aside from applying these precautions, we educate our clients, patients, visitors to avoid
the transmission of the virus. Following this safety measure will be the key to make
things around the world back to normal again.