Chris | April 15, 2010
If you are the Staff Developer and the Infection Preventionist you are most likely responsible for Employee Health as well; that includes annual resident and employee Tuberculosis screenings with PPD. What do you do if an employee converts from a negative to a positive PPD?
To begin with, The Preventionist needs to be skilled at administering [...]
Chris | April 5, 2010
“It’s in the Infection Control Manual”
I receive calls and questions from Staff Developers and Directors of Nursing on a daily basis. Remember when we were young students working on a report and we asked our parents how to spell a word? We wanted the answer immediately but instead, they told us to “look it up”. Now [...]
Chris | March 27, 2010
C. Difficile Infection (CDI); what it is, how it is transmitted and what can be done to prevent its spread.
Clostridium Difficile is an Antibiotic- Associated Diarrhea Disease (AAD) found in hospitals, skilled nursing facilities and long-term care settings subsequent to antibiotic treatment. It is a tough little anaerobic, gram-positive, spore forming bacillus that produces two [...]
Chris | March 18, 2010
The CDC defines Multidrug-Resistant Organisms (MDRO’s) as microorganisms that have developed resistance to multiple antimicrobial drugs; two MDRO’s we are most familiar with in Long-term Care are MRSA (Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus and VRE (Vancomycin Resistant Enterococcus). Illness with MDRO’s can range from simple colonization to more severe manifestations of infection.
Colonization is defined as the presence [...]
Chris | March 10, 2010
You, the DSD, come on duty Monday morning and are told Sunday night three residents began having several episodes of vomiting and Diarrhea and a Nursing Assistant went home with the same symptoms. What should you do with this information?
Consider this a potential Norovirus- associated Gastroenteritis outbreak.
First notify DON, Medical Director, resident’s Physicians, Administration and [...]
Chris | March 7, 2010
The next few posts will highlight some infection control situations that may occur in Long-term Care. These are based on generalities and are for illustration purposes only. Each patient and every plan of care must always be based on a complete patient assessment.
Situation # 1
An HIV + patient is admitted to your Skilled Nursing [...]
Chris | March 6, 2010
The last post briefly explained the roles of both the Centers for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC) and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and their influence on Universal, Standard, and Transmission Based Precautions, also known as Isolation Precautions.
Thinking in terms of interrupting transmission of infectious agents in everyday situations is known as Breaking [...]
Chris | March 2, 2010
What is OSHA?
OSHA is the acronym for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, an agency of the Federal Government created by Congress in 1970 under The Department of Labor. OSHA mandates compliance with standards set for employee safety in the workplace. In 1991 OSHA developed the Bloodborne Pathogens Standard to protect workers from the risk associated [...]
Chris | February 21, 2010
The acronym ICP (Infection Control Practitioner) is typically used to refer to the Infection Control Nurse in long-term care.
In the past, the term Nosocomial Infection was used to describe facility acquired infections; the newer term, Healthcare-associated Infections (HAI) is in use by Preventionists now.
In our last post we discussed many of the duties assigned to [...]
Chris | February 14, 2010
An Infection Control professional, more recently referred to as an Infection Preventionist (ICP) is usually required to be a licensed Registered or Vocational Nurse, depending on state regulations. Some of the duties of the Infection Preventionist may include:
Surveillance: In infection control, surveillance is the term used to describe the function of observing, gathering, investigating and reviewing [...]