Research on Environmental Services on Units to Prevent Bacterial Growth with Solid-surface Sinks and Countertops

Research on environmental services on units to prevent bacterial growth with solid-surface sinks and countertops (mold and caulking detector)

Introduction

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) identified that in a year, there are about 88,000 hospital patients deaths resulting from nosocomial infections annually. For this reason, it is important to determine ways in which infectious diseases are transmitted. One of this is Hospital units where patients with weak immune systems reside and may contract deadly illnesses. For this reason, various interventions such as the use of personal protective equipment (PPE) are used as standard precautions signs to prevent the infection of patients in the operating rooms. According to the infection control program agency, there is need to contain the high rates of infections from multiple sources. This is by making sure that there is infection department equipped with physical and human resources to implement its agendas (Durlak & DuPre, 2008). Such is the use and installation of mold and caulking detector at patient care segment.

Types of data to be collected by the agency

To understand various interventions that can be implemented, different types of data need to be collected by the agency. First is the understanding the use of PPE by professional health care practitioners, communicating general procedures in attaining zero infection rate. Additional information is on how mold and bacteria grow on both the vertical and horizontal surfaces. There is no data on how sinks and countertops can be potential sites for the spread of disease, documentation of various bacteria, evidence on possible transmission of bacteria from these surfaces to hands during various activity by the patient and the healthcare workers (HCWs) or physicians and if the cleaning of the sink with a disinfectant helps (Schwebke, et al. 2011). Additionally, the research would collect data on the materials used in the manufacturing of the countertops and solid surface sinks, the cost of installing such amenities and data in previous places where they have been used. Different types of materials need to be compared to provide enough data for comparison.

Uses of the data.

The data collected would be utilized for various purposes. First is to educate infection control practitioners and facilities managers on how bacteria and mold grow on different surfaces around sinks and countertops leading to spread of disease. It will elaborate on instances when the transmission occurs. The data will also address how these bacteria are deposited to the counter tops and sinks, how they are picked and if the cleaning of the sink with a disinfectant kills the bacteria. Additionally, there would be a closer look at the materials used in the manufacture of the countertop and sink. This data would be utilized by HCWs to understand how they end up hosting bacteria and mold. Data on different materials used in making sinks and counter tops may be used in selecting the right type of equipment to use in health care facilities.

To restrain the rate of patient infections, various strategies need to be integrated and implemented by the agency. Use of personal protective equipment by the patients, physicians, and other healthcare workers cannot be implemented without the knowledge on how infection is spread. This data will be used to proposing and integrating safety precautions that would promote the reduction in new infections. It would also help the agency member to communicate the general procedures to be followed in attaining zero infection rate in absolute terms. The data would also challenge previous research on reducing infection by providing sophisticated and modern methods in solving the problem (Smith, Ayanian, Covinsky, Landon, McCarthy Wee & Steinman, 2011).

Due to poor cooperation between members of the infection department who operates in the patient care segment on shifts at the company, data collection and ethical practice may become a problem. Additionally, the social-environmental aspects of the patient become hard to deal with because of re-infection of the outpatients beyond the hospital premises. It is understood that information is a major tool in reducing infections from self-induced sources (Wolfe & Diamond, 2007). The data would also inform on the improvements by considering previous cases of re-infection as well as the significance of the program in reducing the infections in Brigham and Women Hospital

Ethical considerations in collecting, accessing and using research data.

In collecting any data for research or any phenomena, one should make sure that the information gathered is anonymous. The general participants should also be fully informed of the nature of the study as well as various ways in which the data is to be managed or used. The collection tool should be clear to avoid cases of bias due to misleading and opinionated statements. In collecting data, one should ensure participants know their rights about giving certain information in that they can withdraw any data during the study. Confidentiality is another important consideration in protecting the participant. Verification of the data collected is critical in ensuring that the privacy and authorization are maintained. Regarding consent, there is need to have willing participants who have not been coerced while the use of the data does not lead to any distress or damage (Kass, et al., 2014). Data collected should also be stored securely according to its use. Other ethical considerations include ensuring high transparency of data so that it may not be biased after collection, ability to refine and validate the data using publically available data and disciplinary practice to be enforced.

In health research, the methodologies should be diverse enough to suit the issue under study. There is the need to have dichotomies between different fields as the methodology masks important factors. In public health research such as the Research on environmental services on units to prevent bacterial growth with solid-surface sinks and countertops (mold and caulking detector), one should make sure that there is the adoption of the social view of health. It should be able to counter the chaotic environment experience in the medical action so as to allow for professional view and communication of the right ideology to the society (Baum, 1995).

By conducting this research on environmental services on units to prevent bacterial growth with solid-surface sinks and countertops (mold and caulking detector), hospitals and other health care facilities can be able to mitigate various risk associated with different surface infections and with this integrate best practices. Previous data can also be included for comparison purposes so as to update the data collected. Such information can help in improvement especially to the use of mold and caulking detector and solid surfaces so as to restrain the rate of infection sin that patients have weak immune system.

References

Baum, F. (1995). Researching public health: behind the qualitative-quantitative methodological debate. Social Science & Medicine, 40(4), 459-468.

Durlak, J. A., & DuPre, E. P. (2008). Implementation matters: A review of research on the influence of implementation on program outcomes and the factors affecting implementation. American journal of community psychology, 41(3-4), 327.

Kass, N. E., DeLuca, A. N., LeonieCoetzee, M. S., Churchyard, G. J., Ayles, H., Beyers, N., ... & Eldred, L. J. (2014). Applying Ethical Principles to International Community-Based Research: A Case Study from the Consortium to Respond Effectively to the AIDS-TB Epidemic (CREATE). IRB, 36(3), 1-8.

Schwebke, J. R., Rompalo, A., Taylor, S., Sena, A. C., Martin, D. H., Lopez, L. M., ... & Lee, J. Y. (2011). Re-evaluating the treatment of non-gonococcal urethritis: emphasizing emerging pathogensa randomized clinical trial. Clinical Infectious Diseases, 52(2), 163-170.

Smith, A. K., Ayanian, J. Z., Covinsky, K. E., Landon, B. E., McCarthy, E. P., Wee, C. C., & Steinman, M. A. (2011). Conducting high-value secondary dataset analysis: an introductory guide and resources. Journal of general internal medicine, 26(8), 920-929.

Wolfe, N. D., Dunavan, C. P., & Diamond, J. (2007). Origins of major human infectious diseases. Nature, 447(7142), 279-283.