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Lessons Learned: ICUs And Pandemic Infection Control

 

 

# 4135

 

From Nursing Times, a leading weekly magazine for nurses in the UK, an article on a review of ICU procedures this past flu season in Australia that lead the authors to conclude that ICUs need a dedicated Infection Control Nurse during a pandemic outbreak.

 

In talking to hospital personnel in an around where I live, the same could be said for Emergency Departments as well.   

 

We’ve seen reports of ongoing confusion regarding isolation procedures, proper PPEs, and reassignment policies for high risk HCWs (Health Care Workers).

 

 

Dedicated infection control nurses needed in ICU during pandemic

8 December 2009 | By Clare Lomas

 

Acute trusts should appoint a dedicated infection control nurse to work with staff in intensive care units during the height of a swine flu pandemic, latest research suggests.

 

Following an outbreak of swine flu in Australia in May this year, researchers from Brisbane’s Prince Charles Hospital studied the experiences of 32 medical and nursing staff working in the hospital’s ICU.

 

According to the researchers, the ICU became “overburdened” with the high number of patients requiring admission to the unit with suspected or confirmed swine flu, creating significant infection control problems for critical care nurses.

 

A lack of firm recommendations and guidelines on the use of personal protective equipment created confusion among staff, and the isolation procedures employed during the pandemic were identified by nurses as creating extra workload and frustration.

 

The study also found that the absence of a protocol to guide when a patient was cleared of being infectious, and conflicting advice about whether to treat a patient as infectious or not, also problems for ICU staff.

(Continue . . . )

 

 

Over the past 6 months many of these issues have been brought up repeatedly in this blog, and elsewhere.  Some of those blogs Include:

 

CNA/NNOC Plan Protest Over Inadequate H1N1 Protection
Nursing Survey Shows Hospital Deficiencies
IOM Meeting On PPEs For HCWs
IOM PPE Workshop Webcast Continues
Nurses Protest Lack Of PPE’s
Report: Nurses File Complaint Over Lack Of PPE
California Nurses Association Statement On Lack Of PPE
HCPs At Risk

 

Given the confusion, and lack of stockpiled PPEs, we are extremely fortunate that the H1N1 pandemic virus is not any more pathogenic than it has been to date.


Something that we cannot assume will hold true for the next pandemic outbreak.

Related Post:

Pandemic
Infection Control

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