Breanna Welch

October 12, 2015

UWRT 1101
Critical Thinking Essay: Hospital Acquired Infections
There are a lot of hot topics in nursing. The one that particularly caught my
eye was hospital acquired infections. Hospital acquired infections are caused by
viral, bacterial and fungal pathogens. The most common types are bloodstream
infection, pneumonia, urinary tract infection, and surgical site infection. For hospital
acquired infections in general, you should take standard precautions to make sure
things go smoothly. Standard precautions are washing your hands, making sure
that, if entering the body in any way, the equipment is sterile, also you must be
wearing gloves.
Bloodstream infections, are infections that happen strictly in the blood. The
most common occurring bloodstream infections are caused by catheters. A catheter
is a flexible tube inserted through an opening into the bladder, to remove fluid.
These infections can happen for a number of reasons but the most common are, not
taking standard precautions. To determine whether or not a patient has a blood
stream infection, blood has to be taken and a blood culture performed. A blood
culture is a blood culture is a test to detect germs such as bacteria or fungi in the
blood. ("Blood Culture." KidsHealth. Ed. Yamini Durani. The Nemours Foundation, 01
May 2012. Web. 21 Oct. 2015.) The most common treatment for bloodstream
infections is antimicrobial therapy, which is basically taking antibiotics.

Pneumonia, is an infection where, the lungs may swell and fill up with fluid.
The main causes of pneumonia are, viruses, bacteria, and fungus. Also, if you have
the cold or flu it can develop into pneumonia. You can also, get the illness from
other people, when you breathe infected air into your lungs. In most cases, the
specific origin of the infection cannot be identified. Some common symptoms for
pneumonia are, cough, fever, shakes, nausea and vomiting, feeling tired or weak,
and chest pain. The most common treatment for pneumonia is antibiotics, a lot of
fluids, and a lot of rest.
A Urinary Tract Infection, is an infection in the urinary system. It can cause
pain in the lower belly, urinating frequently, pain or burning when urinating, fever,
nausea and vomiting, and chills. The causes of urinary tract infections are bacteria
and kidney stones. Treatment of kidney stones is very painful. A kidney stone is
minerals that got stuck together. To pass a kidney stone it must come out naturally,
however if it is too large, it may need to be surgically removed. The overall
treatment of a urinary tract infection is, antibiotics, lots of fluids, and lots of
urinating.
A Surgical site infection is an infection that occurs after surgery in the part of
the body where surgery took place. A surgical site infection happens to 1 to 3 out of
every 100 patients who have surgery. (Dhqp, CDC -. "FAQs about "Surgical Site
Infections"" FAQ's about Surgical Site Infections (n.d.): n. pag. CDC.gov. CDC. Web.)
Some symptoms of a surgical site infection are, redness and pain around the area of
surgery, drainage of cloudy fluid from your surgical wound, and fever. In most cases,
you can treat surgical site infections with antibiotics. However, in extreme cases you
may need another surgery.

The weaknesses with all of these treatments are the symptoms of the
medications. All medications have symptoms. Some show up and others dont.
Depending on the person will determine which side effects will affect them. For
these hospital acquired infections, antibiotics is the common medication to treat
them. Therefore, some of the common symptoms of antibiotics are diarrhea and
upset stomach. Some more harsh symptoms that you should see your doctor about
are, vomiting, severe abdominal cramps, allergic reaction, rash, and white patches
on the tongue.
Hospital acquired infections are always going to be a problem, because there
are new illnesses every day. Not everyone takes the proper standard precautions
like they are supposed to. However, the hospital acquired infections percentage
fluctuates ever year. So if everyone uses the standard precautions in the hospital
the percent can be the lowest its ever been.