There exist several problems in a clinical environment. Consequently, there is one prevalent problem that I realized in my hospital. The problem is an increase in the number of hospital-acquired infections. Most of the healthcare organizations provide minimal consideration about the registered cases of hospital-acquired infections amongst their distinguished patients. That is the primary reason many patients fail to recover. It is a fact that the organization leadership plays a crucial role in such circumstance. It is the role of the healthcare organization to ensure that the patient care provided is up to the standard. However, some nurses fail to ensure that this is achieved. Therefore, hospital acquired infections is one of the most notable problems in many healthcare organizations globally (Thomson-Smith, 2010).
Detailed description of the problem
In addition to the above, it is imperative noting that provision of quality patient care is essential. Firstly, it ensures faster recovery of the patient. Research reveals that nurses that provide quality services by avoiding hospital-acquired infections also ensure that patients recover rapidly (Thomson-Smith, 2010). On the contrary, healthcare organizations that have this problem lose a lot of patients. That is a clear indication that quality patient care practices should be enhanced in all healthcare environments. Secondly, hospital leadership plays a substantial role in ensuring that patient care is up to the standard. Perhaps, there is a need to avail the required resources to ensure patient care is efficient and at par. The most significant resources include competent nurses and advanced machinery, equipment, and facilities that will offer an upper hand in reducing the number of hospitals acquired infections.
Furthermore, acquisition of advanced equipment and facilities for conducting frequent treatments might be expensive. This adds up to the problem of ensuring quality patient care. Most of the healthcare organizations cannot afford these expensive facilities and personnel for conducting advanced treatments. As a result of the above, hiring the services of competent nurses is not a simple task. Firstly, getting them is tedious. Secondly, pay and maintain them is costly. Thus, this is a clear description of the issues that revolves around the notable increase in the number of hospital-acquired infections in various clinical environments (Mathur, 2010).
Impact of the problem
There are several impacts associated with hospital-acquired infections. Some of the impacts affect the workplace; others affect the quality of care whereas others affect the patient outcome. Firstly, it is imperative to analyze the effects on the workplace. The increase in the number of hospital-acquired infections can adversely affect healthcare work environment. Most trained and professional nurses comprehend the significance of quality patient care. However, some nurses do not engage in such practices. Therefore, if the organization fails to uphold quality patient care by inflicting further infections, there is a lot that can happen. Some of the nurses can leave their respective hospitals due to poor credibility from the members of the public. On the other hand, some of them can work with minimal morale due lack of public support for efficiency of their services (Mathur, 2010).
However, hospital acquired infections affects the quality of the healthcare services provided. Most of the patients hope for the best and quality services from the healthcare setups that they visit. However, there exist some stumbling blocks to such provision of quality services. Firstly, the organization leadership must provide the necessary equipment and facilities for quality services. Failure to do that translates to reduced services and increase in the number of hospitals acquired infections (Thomson-Smith, 2010). Hence, the staff will not be in a position to provide the best services. Secondly, the staff should also initiate practices that will guarantee non-existence of hospital acquired infections. For instance, they should call upon the organization leadership to ensure that the required resources and appropriate work ethics are upheld at all times.
The above problem substantially impacts on the patient outcome. It is a fact that poor patient care can lead to losing of the patient’s life. However, in most cases it leads to prolonged recovery of the patient. In such instances, patients do not prefer healthcare organizations with such problems. Thus, it is profoundly necessary to ensure that quality services are provided.
Gravity of the problem
Quality patient care is one of the most significant practices and top priority in the nursing sector. All nurses are trained to provide the best care practices to their patients by avoiding nursing practices that can inflict them with infections. That will go an extra mile in ensuring faster recovery of these patients. On the other hand, it guarantees that the objectives of the healthcare organizations are achieved. Thus, the clinical environment should ensure that such and related problems should be solved amicably. The organization leadership should ensure that all measures necessary are set to ensure that the occurrence of hospital acquired infections is prevented at all costs. On the other hand, nurses should uphold high professionalism in undertaking their tasks to guarantee quality clinical and nursing services to their distinguished patients (Mathur, 2010).
Proposed solution to address the problem
One of the key players on all issues affecting the healthcare organization is the leadership. For the case of hospital acquired infections, healthcare administration should uphold washing of hands as the fundamental solution for addressing the identified problem. Perhaps, healthcare providers who do not abide by nursing ethics should be replaced immediately. It should be clear to all healthcare providers that hands hygiene is a primary nursing practice that should be apprehended whatsoever. Despite a large scope in the possible measures that can assist in preventing the occurrence of hospital acquired infections, washing of hands is the best solution of all. On the contrary, healthcare leadership should integrate research practices and general quality analysis for future identification of nursing problems and their possible solutions for an outstanding patient outcome (Mathur, 2010).
- Mathur, P. (2010). Hospital acquired infections: Prevention & control. New York: Wolters Kluwer Health.
- Thomson-Smith, L. (2010). Hospital acquired infections: Deadly for hundreds of thousands of patients. London: Fastbook Publishing.
