Nursing

Keep your visitors, patients free from infection

Staff Development Weekly: Insight on Evidence-Based Practice in Education, November 14, 2007

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Nobody wants hospital visitors taking home souvenirs. By souvenirs, we mean those infectious organisms that might hitch a ride out of the room when friends and family members visit a patient who is on contact precautions. Additionally, nobody wants visitors-who might use the cafeteria or the public restrooms-to transmit those organisms to other patients in the hospital who may be susceptible to infection.

This type of infection control is a delicate issue that your facility must handle appropriately. Although some states have requirements, there are no federal regulations that mandate how facilities should handle visitors for a patient on contact precautions, so it is often left up to the facility to decide how to address the issue.

Following are some additional tips to help your facility protect both visitors and patients:

  • Educate whenever possible. Replace fear with fact by teaching visitors how organisms are transmitted. Once you do, it becomes easier to help people understand how simple hand hygiene can prevent the spread of germs.
  • Think outside the room. If it's impractical to ask visitors to wear gowns and gloves, put the gown and gloves on the patient and bring the patient to them.
  • Teach hand hygiene. Encourage proper handwashing and hand out a cheat sheet to inform patients how to wash properly. Also, ensure that any resources you provide to visitors are in the primary languages spoken in your facility.

To get more information, go to Briefings on Infection Control (BOIC). For the cost of just three stories, you can get the entire November issue of BOIC. Click here to choose between the PDF and HTML versions for just $30. Subscribers to the online version of BOIC have free access to this article. Subscribers to the print newsletter can find this article in their November issue.



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