Isolation precautions Archives

Infections in Acute Care: Still More to Do

A sharply increased focus on hospital-acquired infections (HAIs).

This month marks the 14th anniversary of the National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN), the CDC’s data repository for health care–associated infections. Since 2005, when a limited number of hospitals began reporting infections data, the health care community has sharply increased its focus on the prevention, early recognition, and treatment of infections in the hospital. Research on risk factors, closer attention to limiting device use (urinary catheters, central lines), and support for meticulous hand hygiene and environmental cleaning protocols have decreased rates of CAUTIs, CLABSIs, and surgical site infections.

The risk is always there.

Still, as nurses well know, hospitalized patients remain at increased risk for developing infections, especially if they are immunosuppressed or have diabetes, need invasive devices, have many comorbidities, or stay in a critical care unit.

The current evidence reviewed.

In “Infection in Acute Care: Evidence for Practice” in this month’s AJN, Douglas Houghton reviews the latest evidence on common infections in acute care settings, including community- and hospital-acquired pneumonia, surgical site infections, and C. difficile. […]

Betsy Todd, MPH, RN2019-10-09T10:09:54-04:00October 9th, 2019|infection control, Nursing|1 Comment

A Closer Look at Preventing C. Diff Transmission

Clostridium difficile/ CDC

It’s estimated that Clostridium difficile (C. diff) causes about 450,000 infections and 15,000 deaths each year. Recently, on Facebook, AJN’s question of the week asked about isolation precautions for patients with C. diff. Most readers could not provide the correct answer to the multiple choice question.

In this month’s issue, “Six Things You Can Do Today to Prevent Hospital-Onset C. difficile Tomorrow” offers a quick update of the best ways to prevent C. diff infection and transmission in hospitalized patients.

Author and infection prevention nurse Nancy O’Connor explores the finer points of key basics, including the importance of maintaining a high index of suspicion for cases, performing excellent hand hygiene, and cleaning all surfaces in a case patient’s room with a bleach solution. (And did you know that if the patient remains in the same room posttreatment, after symptoms have resolved, the room should be terminally cleaned to avoid reinfection?)

Isolation precautions and C. diff.

So, what about isolation precautions, which need to be started as soon as C. diff is suspected? Most respondents to our Facebook question thought that standard precautions were sufficient until a C. diff diagnosis was confirmed. But if this “rule-out” patient with diarrhea is positive, does s/he begin to shed C. diff only after the infection […]

Betsy Todd, MPH, RN2017-09-22T11:21:11-04:00September 22nd, 2017|infectious diseases, Nursing|0 Comments

Ebola: Infection Control Resources Make All the Difference

This post is follow-up to our widely shared post (“Ebola: A Nurse Epidemiologist Puts the Outbreak in Perspective”) by AJN clinical editor Betsy Todd. The author, Amanda Anderson, is a critical care nurse and graduate student in New York City who is currently doing a graduate placement at AJN two days a week. Her last post for this blog is here.