The video clip’s topic “Improving Healthcare: Straight from the Heart” creates an impression that doctors’ and nurses’ willingness, passion, and determination to enhance healthcare is the most effective way of hospital-acquired infections. Indeed, healthcare organizations and agencies have set policies and guidelines to alleviate the possibilities of transferring infections from one patient to another or from patients to care providers. However, some health care providers ignore those policies and procedures or feel that they are being coerced to do something. Saint (n.d.) discussed handwashing before and after attending to every patient as the most effective way of preventing infections. He notes that handwashing is a learned behavior that cannot be forced into anyone. Nevertheless, social learning, appropriate leadership, and heartfulness can ensure that handwashing becomes a culture within healthcare settings, allowing doctors and nurses to treat patients with kindness, compassion, and connectedness. Consequently, the behavior of washing becomes more effective in improving healthcare. Additional information that could have been included in the discussion is other strategies to prevent hospital-acquired infections.
Healthcare-associated infections contribute significantly to a high rate of morbidity and mortality. The research article by Haque et al. (2020), evaluates various strategies used within healthcare settings to prevent such infections and improve patient outcomes. Surprisingly, the article’s findings indicate that hand hygiene is the primary tactic for preventing hospital-acquired infections even though it is a more than a century-old concept. Other approaches highlighted in the findings include the maintenance of a safe and clean hospital environment, antibiotic stewardship, and public health surveillance. Haque et al. (2020) further found that following patients’ safety guidelines, as well as screening and categorizing patients into units, help prevent hospital-associated infections. According to Haque et al. (2020), the effectiveness of these strategies varies significantly depending on the individuals implementing them. They conclude that the involvement of public health leadership and healthcare providers to integrate these strategies is vital to maximizing patients’ safety and improving healthcare.
References
Haque, M., McKimm, J., Sartelli, M., Dhingra, S., Labricciosa, F., Islam, S. Jahan, D., Nusrat , T., Chowdhury, T., Coccolini, F., Iskandar, K., Catena, F., & Charan, J. (2020). Strategies to prevent healthcare-associated infections: A narrative overview. Risk Management and Healthcare Policy, Volume 13, 1765-1780.
Saint, S. (n.d).Improving Healthcare: Straight from the Heart [Video]. YouTube.