Tuesday 12 July 2016

The Basics Of VAP Prevention Strategies

By Ruth Wilson


Ventilators associated pneumonia which is mostly known as VAP is actually a type of nosocomial pneumonia that mostly occurs to the patients who are under mechanical ventilator for more than two days. This disease has been associated with an increase in mortality as well as morbidity among patients. It has also significantly contributed to huge hospital bills. Basically the VAP prevention guidelines usually begin from the time of incubation and should actually be extended till the extubation period.

Among all other types of infections acquired in hospital it has been found out that this is the most common and at times it claims lives of about a third of patients who gets it. Those individuals whom have been infected usually spend more time under the ICU and due to this they tend to incur huge treatment costs that expected.

It has also been recommended that a sign needs to be strategically placed on the doors of the patients so as to remind all possible health workers to actually wash as well as wearing gloves while handling patients in order to reduce the chances of infection spreading. Basically using gowns as protective means is not mostly advocated for but at times they need to be used especially when antibiotic pathogens have actually been identified and isolated as well.

It has been viewed that for nurses to be in a better position to assist their patient not to acquire this type of infection they actually need to understand the way this infection occurs, the prevention guidelines as well as the reasons why it is necessary to follow such guidelines. One of the deterrent strategies is the management of the air way.

Limiting the duration of time in which a patient is under the ventilation machine is actually one of the best policies to adopt where necessary. Some of the recommended measure is basically use the noninvasive positive pressured which is usually supplied endlessly either through the face or through the nose mask instead of incubating the patient. It is important if nurses actually remove the ET tube from the patient as soon as possible and try means to avoid repeat of endotracheal intubation.

Another laid guideline is the use of gastric reflux prevention method. Mostly you will actually find that some patients having a nasogastric tube which basically predispose them to a gastric reflux. This is usually attributed to the fact of increased chances of aspiration risk. A well informed guideline is to possibly prevent with all means the gastric reflux which is mostly the task of nurses as it is prone to patient poisoning.

Mostly these beds are usually expensive and not necessarily for continuous use in the inhibition of VAP. Additionally adoption of strategies meant to inhibit the colonization can be used as methods of inhibiting the risk of the infection. Basically due to the existence of endotracheal tube which is mostly associated with predisposing of patients to threats of infections, then this demands assessments of patients on daily basis for weaning as well as extubation.

Cross contamination is another guideline to actually follow. Basically the cross contamination strategies for years have actually remained unchanged. Basically adoption of the significance methods of inhibiting the transmission of germs from health care workers to the possible patients is actually overemphasized.




About the Author:



No comments:

Post a Comment