The MRSA infection, Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, is a type of staph infection that is particularly resistant to conventional antibiotics, making it extremely difficult to treat and mitigate. Generally, this infection spreads in hospitals and other healthcare facilities, and populations at risk include those with weak immune systems, young children and the elderly, the homeless, those in prison, and anyone in crowded, busy unhygienic areas. MRSA is diagnosed through the testing of bodily fluids in a lab, however these tests typically serve place as a confirmation to a medical professional’s suspicion of the disease based on the patient’s symptoms. Signs of MRSA start with small bumps or boils that develop into deep abscesses that harbor bacteria and require surgical draining. These can “burrow” deeper into the body to infect bones, the bloodstream, lungs, and other vital organs. MRSA develops rapidly, often within 24-48 hours, giving doctors little time to take action for treatment.
Doctors will try a conglomeration of antibiotics for MRSA staph infections, mixing and matching certain drugs to try and kill the bacteria, however in many cases the bacteria will evolve and become resistant to each medicine until doctors run out of options. The most widely used antibiotics for staph are cephalexin and vancomycin, but due to their extensive applications, bacteria that is not intrinsically resistant is now evolving and becoming stronger in fighting them. This problem is intensified when patients cease use of their antibiotics too early, or if the antibiotics do not kill all the bacteria, allowing the remaining population time to develop the ability to overpower the medicine and develop an infection even more robust than...
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... percent survival rate in mice treated with traditional vaccines. Since the toxins normally will attach themselves to red blood cells for distribution around the body, the development of these nanosponges reduces the amount of the toxins circulating through the body, and drastically increases chance of survival. After detaining and locking in the toxin, the 85 nanometer, microscopic sponges are cleared from the body through the liver in about two weeks (Phys.Org). Aside from treating just MRSA, nanosponge technology could be applied to other viruses that produce toxins such as E. coli, or utilized in situations such as removing snake venom from the body. The possibilities are endless for this scientific advance, Zhang hopes to perhaps one day program the sponges to arrest several toxins at once, answering the call for vaccinations of countless diseases and illnesses.
Facts of the victim’s case are laid out one by one, as if clues to a whodunit game where the culprit is ubiquitous MRSA. Descriptions are lengthy and vivid, describing everything from the patient’s painful symptoms to gruesome surgical procedures that will upset even the toughest of stomachs. This is definitely not the book to read before a large meal. The book reads like an episode of Frontline, keeping the reader on the edge of their seat until the end.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2013), MRSA is easily transmitted from person to person or from touching materials or surfaces that had previous contact with the infection. Using the implementation of infection control along with patient education will help in the decrease of the spread and help in the prevention in MRSA as well as get patients involved in their own care. The purpose of this paper is to present the problem of MRSA as well as include the rationale and history, review the proposed solution, integrate an implementation plan, summarize the literature review, establish an implementation plan, use a nursing theory to support the implementation plan, use a change theory to support the implementation plan, discuss how the project will be evaluated, and create a dissemination
It is undeniable that the recent discovery of antibiotics and disinfectants in the past century is leading to the creation of increasingly dangerous antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Super bugs like Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus have begun breaking out in hospital areas, killing more and more patients due to the lack of people following through with simple safety measures. In order to stop the creation and spread of antibiotic-resistant super bugs, proper precautions must be taken such as avoiding antibacterial cleaners, following through with instructions when taking prescriptions and maintaining adequate hand hygiene. Through adhering to basic safety rules, the creation and spread of super bugs can be minimized and all together discontinued from occurring at such a rapid rate.
Staphylococcus aureus is a bacteria that is abundant in many places. It can even be found in some of our bodies. These bacteria are harmless as long as none of them are Methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). Methicillin is the name of a family of antibiotics that includes penicillin. This MRSA is the deadly superbug that has developed resistant to antibiotics. Statistics show that MRSA contributes to more US deaths than does HIV. It has become a huge threat to every country as the outbreaks can be a surprising one. This threat is caused by the evolution of the bacteria. These superbugs have evolved a resistance of antibiotics which makes them extremely difficult to treat. One article states, “In the early 1940s, when penicillin was first used to treat bacterial infections, penicillin-resistant strains of S. aureus were unknown — but by the 1950s, they were common in hospitals. Methicillin was introduced in 1961 to treat these resistant strains, and within one year, doctors had encountered methicillin-resistant S. aureus. Today, we have strains of MRSA that simultaneously resist a laundry list of different antibiotics, including vancomycin — often considered our last line of antibacterial defense.” [1]
...ood to above 60 degrees C and storing food below 7.2 degees C are two effective ways of controling S. aureus growth in food. The most important recent epidemiological information concerning this organism involves the increasing resistance to antibiotics. Methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) is the most common of these antibiotic resistant organisms. The effects of MSRA are the same as any other S. aureus infection, however, MSRA infections are a difficult to treat because there are few effective antibiotics available. MSRA infections are generally not life threatening, however in some extreme cases death can occur.
The principle sites of nosocomial infections in patients, in order from most common to least common are: urinary tract, surgical wounds, respiratory tract, skin, blood, gastrointestinal tract, and central nervous system (Abedon). According to the CDC, the most common pathogens that cause nosocomial infections are Staphylococcus aureus, Pseudomonas aeurginosa, and Escherichia coli (EHA). Methicillin resistant Staphylococcal aureus (MRSA) is a strain of bacteria that is commonly...
Patient education is of paramount importance if MRSA is to be reduced to its lowest minimum. According to Noble 2009, patient’s education stands a critical component of managing MRSA therefore; nurses are expected to be prompt in educating patients on specific measures in limiting and reducing the spread of MRSA by person to person contact. (Noble, 2009) The specific measures includes definition of MRSA, mode of transmission, the damage it can do to the body, specific treatments available and the process of treatment. This is to help the patient take part in the care. Noble 2009 explains that during care giving nurses and all other healthcare provider involve in giving care to a patient should communicate to patient all the precaution that will prevent the transmission of MRSA, and also giving the scientific rationale for the use of any precaution that is been used in the cause of care giving. (Noble, 2009.)
Resistant strains are no joke, for years my mother has been dealing with MRSA (methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus). My mother has had MRSA so bad that at one time she was covered in MRSA sores much like when a person breaks out in hives. Watching her suffer the way she has worries me as I am also a healthcare worker and know what these resistant strains are capable of. I know these strains exist because of a lack of proper patient education. Proper patient education is key to the use of antibiotics and prevention of resistance-bacteria strains.
Bacteria that is resistant to antibiotics is a major problem not only for the United States, but worldwide. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2012) the cause is related to “widespread overuse, as well as inappropriate use, of antibiotics that is fueling antibiotic resistance”. According to World Health Organization (2013) resistance is a global concern for several reasons; it impedes the control of infectious diseases, increases healthcare costs, and the death rate for patients with resistant bacterial infections is twice of those with non-resistant bacterial infections.
Bacterial resistance to antibiotics has presented many problems in our society, including an increased chance of fatality due to infections that could have otherwise been treated with success. Antibiotics are used to treat bacterial infections, but overexposure to these drugs give the bacteria more opportunities to mutate, forming resistant strains. Through natural selection, those few mutated bacteria are able to survive treatments of antibiotics and then pass on their genes to other bacterial cells through lateral gene transfer (Zhaxybayeva, 2011). Once resistance builds in one patient, it is possible for the strain to be transmitted to others through improper hygiene and failure to isolate patients in hospitals.
Addie Rerecich was an eleven and a half year of girl who was just as normal as any other kid her age. She played sports and was very social. All that changed one night when she woke up complaining of some pain in her hip. Her mother thought it was just a simple softball injury, so she gave her some ibuprofen and sent her back to bed. When the pain didn’t subside, she was taken to the hospital. Initially the doctors said she had symptoms of a virus. The next day she could breath well and they said she now had pneumonia. When at the hospital the disease specialist said Addie had “community-aquired” resistant staphylococcus MRSA from picking her scabs. This infection caused damage in her lungs and was so bad she was then put on ECMO, total life
This turn of events presents us with an alarming problem. Strains of bacteria that are resistant to all prescribed antibiotics are beginning to appear. As a result, diseases such as tuberculosis and penicillin-resistant gonorrhea are reemerging on a worldwide scale (1). Resistance first appears in a population of bacteria through conditions that favor its selection. When an antibiotic attacks a group of bacteria, cells that are highly susceptible to the medicine will die.
Infection control is very important in the health care profession. Health care professionals, who do not practice proper infection control, allow themselves to become susceptible to a number of infections. Among the most dreaded of these infections are: hepatitis B (HBV), hepatitis C (HCV), and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Another infection which has more recently increased in prevalence is methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). These infections are all treated differently. Each infection has its own symptoms, classifications, and incubation periods. These infections are transmitted in very similar fashions, but they do not all target the same population.
What if there were no treatment for strep throat? Or pneumonia? Or sinus infections? It is hard to imagine life without medicine for these illnesses. But what if the antibiotics used to treat bacterial infections such as strep throat and pneumonia stopped working? What if the bacteria were stronger than the antibiotics? The threat of antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections is an increasing concern for healthcare providers, and it is important to reduce the misuse and overuse of antibiotics to maintain control of bacterial diseases.
MRSA is a major source of healthcare associated diseases, increased hospital mortality, and leading surgical site infection (Jennings, Bennett, Fisher, & Cook, 2014, p. 83). With the implementation of active surveillance screening and contact isolations program, an overall decrease in hospital associated MRSA infections has been observed (Jennings, Bennett, Fisher, & Cook, 2014, p. 83). The author of this paper will identify a theory that can be used to support the proposed intervention i.e., reduce the transmission of MRSA by active screening in patients at high-risk for MRSA on admission. This paper will then describe the selected theory, and rational for the selection, and how this theory will support the proposed solution and how to incorporate this theory in this project.