Annotated Bibliography Environmental Hygiene NURS FPX 4020 Assessment 4: Improvement Plan Tool Kit

NURS FPX 4020 Assessment 4: Improvement Plan Tool Kit

Hospital-associated infections (HAIs) are a significant threat to patient safety, care quality, and health care costs. Among hospitalized patients, HAIs increase the risk of other infections besides prolonging hospital rates and health management costs (Peters et al., 2022). As a result, their identification and prevention should be prioritized in health care settings for improved health outcomes. Effective implementation of the appropriate interventions requires nursing professionals to understand the rationale and execution of different infection control measures. This improvement plan tool kit aims to empower nursing professionals in implementing and sustaining safety measures for preventing HAIs using infection control policy and planning. The tool kit has been organized into four broad themes with three resources under each.

Annotated Bibliography

Environmental Hygiene

Browne, K., & Mitchell, B. G. (2023). Multimodal environmental cleaning strategies to prevent healthcare-associated infections. Antimicrobial Resistance & Infection Control, 12(1), 83. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13756-023-01274-4

This article illustrates infection transmission as a multifaceted issue requiring a multidimensional intervention. As a complex issue, infection transmission involves interplay between a pathogen, a host, and their environment. In response, Browne and Mitchell (2023) evaluate the importance of environmental cleaning as a crucial component of the multifaceted infection control interventions for preventing HAIs. The authors discuss the importance of the Look, Plan, Clean and Dry technique for safe environments. The “Look” step involves visually assessing the environment, while “Plan” involves preparing an area before cleaning. The “Clean” step involves cleaning, wiping, and starting with sites nearest to the patient first. This resource is a valuable reference for nurses to understand what environmental cleaning entails as an infection control measure for HAIs. Nurses can use this resource to implement the Look-Plan-Clean-Dry technique and in instances where environmental cleaning is implemented together with other measures to reduce HAI incidence in hospitals.

Haque, M., McKimm, J., Sartelli, M., Dhingra, S., Labricciosa, F. M., Islam, S., Jahan, D., Nusrat, T., Chowdhury, T. S., Coccolini, F., Iskandar, K., Catena, F., & Charan, J. (2020). Strategies to prevent healthcare-associated infections: a narrative overview. Risk Management and Healthcare Policy, 13, 1765–1780. https://doi.org/10.2147/RMHP.S269315

This article describes the multimodal interventions essential for infection control and preventing in health care facilities. Among the various interventions described as effective in safety enhancement through infection control is environmental hygiene. According to Haque et al. (2020), maintaining strict environmental hygiene is crucial in preventing and controlling infections, particularly hospital-associated infections. Environmental hygiene is maintained by regularly cleaning and disinfecting hospital surfaces that are highly prone to microbial contamination. Such surfaces include bed rails, light switches, and mattresses. This article is a valuable resource for nurses to understand the importance of environmental hygiene in infection control and how to implement it. It describes porous and nonporous surfaces that should be the focus of environmental hygiene interventions to reduce the risk of HAIs significantly. Nurses can use it as a reference for environmental hygiene guidelines and when setting goals for HAI prevention for a safe workplace.

Leistner, R., Kohlmorgen, B., Brodzinski, A., Schwab, F., Lemke, E., Zakonsky, G., & Gastmeier, P. (2023). Environmental cleaning to prevent hospital-acquired infections on non-intensive care units: a pragmatic, single-centre, cluster randomized controlled, crossover trial comparing soap-based, disinfection and probiotic cleaning. EClinicalMedicine, 59, 101958. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eclinm.2023.101958

Effective control and prevention of HAIs require clean environments. Depending on their size, resource availability, and the complexity of an issue, health care facilities can use different environmental hygiene measures. This resource evaluates the differences between three surface-cleaning strategies on the incidence of HAIs: soap-based, disinfectant, and probiotic agents. To determine their differences, Leistner et al. (2023) used each agent on one ward for four consecutive months. The authors found the three agents equally effective in HAI prevention and can be used jointly or in