Infection Control is Important !

Infection control is a precaution set in place to prevent the spread of infection. Were I work, the hospital has policies and procedures that staff, patients and visitors must follow. Precautions are set into place if a patient is sent from a different hospital or present with symptoms that require isolation. The four isolation precautions are: airborne, droplet , contact, droplet/contact. When isolation is set into place the patient is put into a privet room and the proper sign will go up to meet the symptoms. The staff must wear personal protective equipment (PPE). PPE is a gown, gloves, mask, goggles or face shield . For visitors, it is very important to educate of the infection controls precaution that are in place. Teaching is key in the steps to prevent the spread of infection.
The patients that need isolation are usually for clostridium difficile ( c-diff), vancomycin resistant enterococcus (VRE) and methicillin resistant staph aureus (MRSA). These are called antibiotic resistant organism's (ARO). These are contact isolation precautions were you only wear a gown and gloves. Droplet isolation precautions are put in place when a patient presents themselves with a cough and fever. Airborne isolation precautions are used when the patient may have a organisms that can travel long distances . An example would be Tuberculosis. Contact/droplet is put in place when a patient presents with contact symptoms and droplet symptoms. For example, influenza. There are many different organism that require isolation precautions. The infection control policies and procedures are important for the prevention of the spread of infection in the hospital.

Reference: Best Practices for Infection Prevention & Control of MRSA & VRE in all Health Care Settings. March 2007. http://www.virox.com/msds/pdf/PIDACBestPracticesMRSAandVRE.pdf

Transition Unit

Long term care is a increasing issues that needs to addressed sooner then later. As the population get older, we face the need for more long term care facilities. Some of our patients have extremely long wait times. It is not only hard on the patient for these waiting time but also the families as well. The hospital has developed a program to help the patient with the transition of going to nursing homes.
In the hospital that I work for, we have a huge number of long term care patients. On the medical floor , our manager implemented ten bed for patients that are waiting long term care. With these beds it allows patients to be transitioned to the way the daily routine . The patients are given a calender that allows them to follow the date of different activities that are offered to the patients. The patient really enjoy the going to church, singing, cards and guests that come to the hospital to show the patients different hobbies they have. The transition unit is great for the patients. I feel this program is helpful for the patient with the transition of going to a long care facility.

Communication Barriers

Communication is a key factor to providing the best possible health treatment for patients.Communication barriers are a difficult part of being a nurse. In the hospital were I work, we come across barriers all the time. Working on a Medical floor patients come in very sick, whether it is a stroke, heart attack, dementia and are palliative. Communication with patient and family must be clear. I had a young patient that had a stroke with a speech deficit. I would explain every thing I was doing at the bedside. I was unclear if the patient did understand me so I consulted the occupation therapy to see if they had a communication board for the patient to use. I explained the board the the family to use as well so we all would use the same system. As a nurse you think of other factors that could be contributing to the communication barrier. Is the patient depressed, in pain, and frustrated. All of these factors should be addressed in the patients care. In this situation, the patient then became palliative. The patients srtoke was too sever to overcome the deficits. I feel that the communication barrier had kept us from really knowing what the patient was really feeling. I used all resourses that were readly available to me.

Nursing Technology

In the nursing profession, communication technology is used through e-mails. In the hospital that I work in, we use e-mail to pass on information. On the medical floor we get the latest information from the whole hospital .It is called the "Monday Report" . It includes information that has changed that the whole hospital should know. The report includes information from all departments and any changes that will be happening in the future. We also use e-mail to get our unit base counsel meeting minute which includes; who was at the meeting and what topics were discussed. I find this way of communication useful in my job because, I only work part time and sometimes I'm not at work when new changes happen. The emails that come out tell me exactly what is changing. I feel this technology works well in the hospital setting.

About myself !

My name is Shauna and I am 28 years old. I am currently going to UOIT for the nursing bridging program. It has been very stressful so far . I am a RPN and currently work in a hospital.