Best practice principles in nursing for managing indwelling catheters to reduce the risk of nosocomial infections.



Best practice principles in nursing for managing indwelling catheters to reduce the risk of nosocomial infections.

Introduction

Issues critical to the health care reforms in United states involves the escalating demands for producing safe health care, cost effective and high quality. Spiraling health care cost, increasing severity of illness among the hospitalized patient, a vastly aging population and the complexities of treatment and medication regimens in patient care demands that the nurses needs to be more knowledgeable and better equipped to care for patients(Wong, 2005). Catheterization is a silicone tube known as urinary catheter that is inserted into the bladder of a patient via urethra. For collection it allows the urine of the patient to drain freely. There are several basic designs in which the catheters come including Foley catheter, coude catheter, hematuria catheter, intermittent catheter, and urisheat (Hanno, 2002). Various infections occur when a foreign organism such as fungus, bacteria, and virus enters an individual's body; it reproduces and causes an individual's immune system to fight against it. The infections can be prevented by adhering to the practices of infection prevention such as hand hygiene and wearing gloves, by improving safety in high risk areas and operating rooms where the most frequent and serious injuries and exposures to the infectious agent occurs and also paying attention to well established processes of decontamination and sterilization (Lynch, 2002).

Discussion

The main focus of this essay will be on the iatrogenic risk factors also known as invasive procedures such as indwelling urine catheterization (Wong, 2005). In around 25% of the hospitalized patients the indwelling urinary catheters are placed (Lippincott, 2009). The human urinary tract is usually sterile, however through surgical insertions i.e. by catheters the natural defense of the body is disturbed that is responsible to introduce a bacteria may be extraluminally or intraluminally that usually results in infections of the urinary tract. For these devices the contraction of the UTI is a very notable complication. In medical researches along with the daily practice of nurses, the urinary tract infection prevention has generated a high priority. There are two type of catheterization; it may be short term catheterization and long term catheterization. The short term catheters are usually placed by the nurses for less than 10 days where as the long term catheterization is typically placed in the urethra for more than 30 days (Newman, Fader & Bliss, 2004).

Significant complications occur when long term catheters are placed. The catheter placed is known to cause many infections. Proteus mirabilis enters when encrustation of the catheter is done it results in formation of bladder stones and the urethral trauma (Stokowski, 2009). The bacteria Proteus mirabilis colonizes in the internal surface o the catheter, that usually forms a bio film which binds the non organic and organic material and then it may resist the therapy from antibiotics (Fraczyk & Godfrey, 2004). Catheterization is a widespread medical procedure despite the risks to Urinary tract ...