Clinical Improvement Project
For this assignment, you may to discuss 1) preventing/reducing prevalence of hospital acquired infections among adults/geriatrics population; OR 2) implementing antibiotic stewardship to prevent inappropriate use, decrease risk of antibiotic resistance, and C-diff. I am a family nurse practitioner currently working in long-term care setting with adult/geriatric population with increased risk for antibiotic resistance due to age and multi-health issues. My facility has 150 bed capability and poor implementation of antibiotic stewardship among us the clinicians is an over aching problem causing facility to loose money. Same goes for hospital acquired infections. Pls be sure you se correct APA 7 format for the entire paper including reference page with primary sources esp for the models/theories etc
Sample Paper
Clinical Improvement Project
(Preventing/Reducing Prevalence of Hospital Acquired Infections among Adults/Geriatrics Population)
Healthcare quality and wellness are significant targets of nurses and all medics during their daily practice. Healthcare quality is revealed through the effectiveness of such elements as the quality of care services, patient safety issues, and level of healthcare providers’ motivation. According to Cristina et al. (2021), the healthcare sector has faced a significant problem with the rising incidences of hospital-acquired infections (HAIs) that are accrued during the medical care process. HAIs are diseases contracted by patients in a healthcare facility during the admission period which can also be evident among the clinicians. Statistics reveal that in every 25 hospitalized persons, one person is diagnosed with one or several HAIs annually (CDC, 2020). The data signifies a major detrimental issue in the health sector that needs to be addressed. HAIs pose a risk to the quality of care and affect the cost of healthcare by contributing to prolonged hospital stays, antibiotic resistance, and high mortalities for geriatric patients necessitating immediate practice interventions to halt or reduce the infections.
Background Information
HAIs, also called Nosocomial infections, have become an order in many hospitals and healthcare facilities despite the many advancements and technology integration in the health sector. Hospitalized patients contract these infections during various medical procedures, invasive strategies, overpopulation in the facilities, patients’ compromised immunities, and inadequate infection control practices (Bigelow et al., 2020). WHO implies that nosocomial infections are more prevalent among vulnerable patients like the elderly or those with underlying ailments like cancer, HIV, Diabetes (CDC, 2020). Nosocomial infections include pneumonia, respiratory infections, Urinary Tract Infections (UTIs), drug resistance, skin infections, and pressure ulcers. HAIs compromise the patient’s health status and subject them to emotional stress, hampering their quality of life. Patients can incur critical morbidities which adversely affect their health status. The condition put the patients’ lives at risk and their clinicians and any visitor in the ward. Alleviating HAIs can entail adopting public health surveillance, bedside checklist, antibiotic stewardship, maintaining high-level sanitation and hygiene within the hospital and its environs, screening and categorizing patients into cohorts, and generally observing patients’ safety protocol strictly.
Geriatric patients are susceptible to these nosocomial infections because of the many transfers from one facility and nursing home to another, which can cause care fragmentations and pave the way for pathogens transfer and contraction of the infections (Cristina et al., 2021). I am a family nurse practitioner working in a long-term care setting with the adult/geriatric population; patients have severally been diagnosed with HAIs. The facility has adult, geriatric patients struggling with increased risk for antibiotic resistance due to age and multi-health issues. The healthcare facility with 150-bed capability has incurred losses and high costs caused by clinicians’ reluctance in implementing stewardship strategies for preventing or reducing the high prevalence of HAIs and poor implementation of antibiotic stewardship. The high prevalence of HAIs in the facility, which has subjected patients to prolonged hospital stays and deteriorated health status, can only be halted if this issue is resolved.
Purpose of the Project
The project on preventing or reducing the prevalence of HAIs is aimed at helping get effective intervention strategies for the condition to improve the quality of life and improve care delivery for geriatric patients. The project is essential to advanced nursing practice because preventing nosocomial infections is key to availing a safe healthcare setting and improving the quality of care delivered to patients. The implications of the ailment are adverse to patients and nurses and are associated with high morbidities and mortalities in the healthcare settings (RN et al., 2017. Thus its alleviation is crucial in informing NP’s daily practice and protecting them with their patients from infections.
Nursing Theory that Guides the Intervention
Nursing theories are essential in laying a good foundation and providing concepts that help NPs understand their patients well with their needs. Nola Pender’s Health Promotion model is an ideal nursing theory that has been used countlessly to inform nursing research, nursing practice, and education and will guide the improvement of patients’ healthcare to reduce/prevent incidences of HAIs. According to the theory, nurses have a critical role in aiding their patients to prevent diseases through effective self-care and any other significant alternative (Khoshnood et al., 2020). Pender emphasizes the importance of preventative health procedures in promoting good healthcare. The author advocates for the embracement of health-promoting behaviors that tend to improve the quality of life, improve one’s health, and strengthen functional capability (Khoshnood et al., 2020).
Pender’s health promotion model highlights these crucial concepts:
Health Promotion: This strategy aims to enhance the patient’s wellbeing and their general human health potential.
Health Protection: which, according to Pender, entails preventive disease strategies through the embracement of behaviors that avoid ailments, help in its early detection, and being able to live within the healthy range.
Individual Traits and Experiences: Personal aligned attributes and behaviors
Behavior- Specific Cognitions: This signals self-efficacy, interpersonal influences, benefits of action, and any situational influences.
Behavioral Outcomes: This concept implies one’s actions in the face of competing demands and preferences to choose a health-promoting behavior.
The Health Promotion theory is relevant for this clinical improvement project to prevent or reduce the prevalence of nosocomial infections in healthcare settings. The recommendations of a nursing practice that promotes patients’ wellbeing by protecting them from diseases by Pender are relevant in fulfilling this project’s purpose. Nurses should ensure healthy living in their approach and adhere to all safety protocols that keep the patients safe. Other self-care and safety alternatives should be integrated into their practice to improve quality of life and patients’ potential wellness.
Intervention
Preventing HAIs in adult geriatric populations effectively can entail the integration of a bedside checklist during hospital-based care, antibiotic stewardship among clinicians, and general Education and Strict Guidelines on Hand and General Body Hygiene.
Bedside Checklist
The use of bedside checklists in hospitals helps reduce or eliminate hospital-acquired or associated infections such as CAUTIs, CLABSIs, and SSIs since they encourage higher compliance levels to the set hygiene standards and general nursing or clinical practices (Hauch 2019; Bigelow et al., 2020). This strategy is a crucial reminder to nurses’ and clinicians’ neglected role in administering best care to the patients. Hunch attributes HAIs to lack of care and improper catheter placement that causes the high prevalence of morbidities and mortalities, which poses adverse health outcomes. The high prevalence of HAIs in the health setup can be alleviated best if the bedside checklist strategy is coupled with antibiotic stewardship due to the increased antibiotic resistance among patients, education, strict guidelines on hand, and general body hygiene (Haunch, 2019). Haunch’s EBP article is a quality improvement evaluation that encompasses a review of CAUTIs cases in hospitals for 9 months for analysis. According to the John Hopkins model, it is a level V evidence-based practice research. The EBP does not highlight any alternative strategy that is patient-centered or that aims at self-care in preventing HAIs.
