Mitigating sepsis Research Paper

Advance nurses have a higher skill of training which can be utilized to device ways that can be used to reduce the occurrence of sepsis. This write up explores the changes in nurse staffing mix that advanced nurses can institute as an intervention towards reducing sepsis through reducing hospital acquired infections which are a leading cause of sepsis in patients. Introduction Sepsis represents a severe inflammatory response to an infection. The occurrence of sepsis in the healthcare practice environment is common in patients with lowered immune responses such as; the elderly, immunocompromised individuals and children. Sepsis is a key concern within the care environment that may result in lost revenue for the care providers and healthcare organizations as well as leading to poor patient experience of care.

According to a study conducted to establish the incidence of sepsis in the USA, there were 173,690 cases of sepsis in a population of 2,901,019 admitted in study hospitals in the USA. The incidence of sepsis in the study stood at 6% which is a high incidence rate with 15% of the patients who had sepsis dying (Rhee et al. The statistics indicate that sepsis is a major public health concern in the country and among the costliest condition to manage within the healthcare system (Rhee et al. The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) indicates that sepsis is a costly disease to manage with over 20 billion in spending on sepsis in 2011 (AHRQ, 2011). The European Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (ECDC) indicated that the observance of aseptic techniques in the healthcare environment is a crucial aspect in preventing infections which pose risks for sepsis.

Sepsis occurs because of infections, hence reducing infections is an important point to start in reducing the incidence of sepsis in the care environment (Peters, Masson-Roy & Pittet, 2018). Hospital-acquired infections are often spread from one patient to another through poor hand hygiene (Sickbert-Bennett et al. As a strategy for the prevention of sepsis, all employees require to be educated on the five moments of hand hygiene. Education and continuous sensitization on the five points of hand washing is imperative to all the staff meeting the patients. As a strategy, continuous medical education and development of standard operating procedures that emphasize hand hygiene for healthcare providers will be imperative. The staffing within the nursing care units also comprises of nurses with various backgrounds and degrees of training as well as experience.

Ensuring an efficient staffing mix within the nursing staff is crucial in providing that the nurses can support each other in the provision of nursing care services (Jacob, McKenna & D'Amore, 2013). An Advance Nurse Practitioner leads in directing the care provisioning within the unit. The staffing mix can be initiated by the advance practice nurse initially listing the staff nurses within the unit and their levels of qualification as well as their experiences in nursing. The nurses are them grouped and allocated shift duties within the unit according to their levels of skill and experience. A balance in the level of education is important as studies have established that the higher the level of education for the nurse, the better the patient outcomes (Abdul Rahman, Jarrar & Don, 2015).

Experience is essential as it enables the nurses to support the newly registered nurses in the unit during patient care as well as encouraging them in decision making on the patient care. The ability of the nurse is considered significant as it informs the nurse staffing to ensure that each nurse strengths and passion are considered during the staffing mix. The final step will be refreezing which is an essential skill in guaranteeing the change in nursing staff mix is affected and maintained in a sustainable for the unit. I will utilize the Team STEPPS model of healthcare training to train the nursing teams on Situation Monitoring, Mutual Support, Leadership, and Communication which are critical in enhancing and maintaining teamwork amongst the teams established (Agency for Healthcare Research & Quality, 2018).