Health care professionals play a crucial role in helping to prevent and control infectious disease. Nurses are an important factor in helping to prevent the spread of infection. As a nurse it is extremely important to understand the infection process, the chain of infection, and prevention techniques.
In the TWO scenarios below, describe in paragraph form what you as a health care provider would do in these situations. Describe what was done right, what was done incorrectly, and what education needs to be discussed in each scenario.
Scenario 1
A man is recovering from a minor surgical procedure. His son, daughter-in-law, and grandson come to visit him. His daughter-in-law is suffering from what appears to be a bad cold and, although hospital policies prohibit children under the age of 10 from visiting patients in this ward, the 3-year-old grandson still came up.
You notice that the woman is sneezing and coughing into her hands. You also notice that the child keeps moving from his mother’s lap to the patient’s lap in the hospital bed. In addition, you observe that the woman is changing the television stations on the remote control to find something the child can watch.
Scenario 2
A charge nurse on a medical/surgical unit approaches a computer and notices that the keyboard is visibly soiled. She goes to a supply closet to get some disinfectant wipes to clean the keys. When she returns, she notes that a nurse is sitting at the computer using the soiled keyboard. As she watches, the nurse picks up a patient chart, makes a note, and then returns to the keyboard. When she is finished typing, the nurse walks away from the computer and heads for one of the patient rooms.