Introduction of Paper
Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus is a very serious infection that affects the health of the public. The purpose of this paper is to give the public/reader a better understanding of what MRSA really is. This paper will include the different disease characteristics that come with the infection. Also, it will explain the most recent disease statistics; identify a person’s risk of contracting the disease, methods used to control the spread of the disease, and explain implications for disaster.
Disease Characteristics of MRSA
The causative agent in MRSA would be Staphylococcus aureus. According to the NIH, “The bacteria have been classified into two categories based on where the infection is first acquired” (NIH, 2014). The two different types of MRSA are Hospital-Acquired and Community-Associated MRSA. Hospital-Acquired MRSA has been around for a long time, it usually affects people inside a healthcare facility. For example, people who have had surgery or have had medical devices surgically implanted in them have been known to acquire MRSA. It’s also typically seen in patients who are elderly, or with people with a weak immune system. Patients who have undergone kidney dialysis or using venous catheter or prosthetics have been known to acquire MRSA (NIH, 2014). Patients who acquire MRSA in the hospital have an increased mortality rate and decreased longevity (Rogers, 2013).
Community-Associated MRSA has caused a huge concern for public health professionals because of who can get it. All CA-MRSA strains typically carry a novel type of methicillin resistance locus that appears to cause less of a fitness burden (Otto, 2013). Unlike hospitalized MRSA, which can usually be traced back to a speci...
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01, 2013). Post-discharge mortality in patients hospitalized with MRSA infection and/or
colonization. Epidemiology and Infection, 141, 6, 1187-98.
Mossong, J., Gelhausen, E., Decruyenaere, F., Devaux, A., Perrin, M., Even, J., & Heisbourg, E.
(January 01, 2013). Prevalence, risk factors and molecular epidemiology of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) colonization in residents of long-term care facilities in Luxembourg, 2010. Epidemiology and Infection, 141, 6, 1199-206.
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 distinct that Darwin’s theory is more suited to the evolution of MRSA as it involves concepts of Natural Selection. Methicillin resistant strands have a better chance of surviving and breeding whereas other non-resistant strands die off as they have a lower probability of survival. They adapt to mankind’s defences to generate more breeding grounds of MRSA in humans and animals to generate growth. Genetic variation does not have to occur randomly as plasmids can transfer segments of DNA to distantly related organisms.
The first observed cases of HA-MRSA occurred in the 1960’s. Since then, the overall proportion of staph bacteria that are methicillin resistant has increased over two-fold since 1992. (CDC 2013) In 2005, a conservative estimate of hospital patients that developed cases of invasive MRSA was close to 100,000; the number of fatalities was 20,000 deaths. The majority, or at least 65% of health care associated infections is attributed to MRSA. The mortality for hospital blood stream infections such as MRSA is 25% (Klevens et. al 2007).
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.
There was a case that I observed a fellow nurse admitting a patient with MRSA. The patient had Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus also known as MRSA to a surgical wound. Isolation precautions were used per facility protocol causing concern and questions from the patient and family.
Zhang, Y. B., Harwood, J., Williams, A., Ylänne-McEwen, V., Wadleigh, P. M., & Thimm, C.
Ottenberg, A. L., Wu, J. T., Poland, G. A., Jacobson, R. M., Koenig , B. A., & Tilburt, J. C.
The role of nurses in the prevention of MRSA in the hospitals cannot be overemphasized. The prevalence of MRSA in hospitals calls for awareness and sensitization of all party involved in patient caregiving in the hospital. According to Wilkinson and Treas (2011), nurses take on many roles in the hospital: a caregiver, advocate, communicator, leader, manager counsellor, change agent and an educator. (Wilkinson &Treas. (2011) p.13.) The target of healthy people 2020 is to reduce MRSA and all other hospital acquired infection by 75% in the year 2020. (Healthy people 2020) This cannot be achieved without the maximum support of nurses because nurses have regular one on one contact with patients on daily basis.This paper will take a closer look at the role of a nurse as an educator in the prevention of MRSA in the hospital. One of the nurse’s roles in the prevention of MRSA in hospitals is patient/visitor/staff education.
In health care facilities many sick patients are treated in isolated or confined spaces. This means that many microorganisms are present in these areas. Patients come in contact with many health care workers (HCW) who can potentially help the spread of these microorganisms and infections between their patients.
Approximately one year ago in Kentucky, a man went to sleep thinking he might have caught a flu. The next day, he is rushed to the local hospital while coughing up chunks of lung tissue; within a few hours he experiences organ failure and lips into a coma. Over the next two days, two other patients come in with the same symptoms and die almost immediately. This epidemic that swept over this small area in Kentucky was an ultra resistant strain of staph infection known as MRSA, or methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (Eisler, 2013). MRSA and other species of resistant bacteria have arisen from the global overuse of antibiotics. Over the years, resistant strains of bacteria have become more and more difficult to fend of using common antibiotic treatments. If something is not done to stop antibiotic resistance, completely resistant strains of bacteria, which we will be unable to kill through use of antibiotics.
Stanley, J., Gannon, J., Gabuat, J., Hartranft, S., Adams, N., Mayes, C., Shouse, G. M.,
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.
Whelan, R., Conrod, P. J., Poline, J., Lourdusamy, A., Banaschewski, T., Barker, G. J, Bellgrove, M. A.,
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.