In most care homes, residents share space, food, air, and equipment which can easily cause infection outbreaks of viruses and bacteria. These outbreaks can lead to certain diseases such as respiratory and gastrointestinal infections which can easily cause death if not managed properly. Nurse practitioners are, therefore, required to be trained on how to detect or investigate, prevent, and management of an outbreak. However, the outbreak of infection is transmitted from a person to person through the air, food, water, and other shared items within a setup. In care homes, the opportunity for the outbreak is high, and therefore, the need for nurse practice to manage any infection is required. The outbreak of infection in care home setup is addressed through investigation, detection, prevention, and cure.
However, the role of a nurse practitioner is to assess the health risks and illness status of every individual infected. A nurse practitioner is also supposed to diagnose the infection and offer an injection identified. According to Collins (2014), nurse practitioners address all the pertinent issues which arise in the care home facilities when an outbreak occurs. The nurse practitioners also makes decisions on the treatment plans together with the affected person, they also promote healthcare services to make sure that future infections are avoided (Collins, 2014).
As stated by Smith and Molly (2012) when an outbreak of a virus or bacteria causes respiratory problems to occur in any care home, nurse practitioners must be ready to offer the required service to address the problem. First, nurses are supposed to detect the kind of infection and categorize the infection right to provide necessary treatment. It is also necessary to investigate the outbreak where the type of infection and model of cure will be stated. It is also upon the nurse practitioners to provide treatment and also offer training or educate the community so that such infections do not occur in the future (Smith & Molly, 2012).
It is also important to address issues related to epidemiology during training to make sure that any chances of misinformation do not occur. According to Macera, Richard, and Peggy (2013), an outbreak of infection can be addressed by coming up with the best strategy to address the condition which is inclusive. It is necessary to firm confirm the diagnosis of the outbreak. This can be achieved through conducting a test, especially for the affected persons, and randomly among the public as well. The second steps are to confirm the existence of the outbreak after conducting various tests among the people affected and the public. Macera, Richard, and Peggy (2013) noted that immediately after confirming the existence of the outbreak, the nurse practitioner is required to register the number of cases. This includes the number of persons already infected with the virus or the bacteria or people who have shown systems of the outbreak. This will in isolating cases and if need be quarantine the affected people to avoid the spread of the outbreak to other regions.
In outlining the number of affected people, nurse practitioners are expected to include the age, time of infection, place, and name of the affected person. This will ensure that individuals affected are properly identified and necessary medication is provided. It is also important to register the location so that education can be conducted in areas where the infection has occurred. It is also required that a hypothesis should be developed to be used to address the epidemic. This can be done in collaboration with the nurse practitioners and another medical professional at the scene. It will make sure that all issues which need to address to prevent the infection and educate the public are made available.
It is also appropriate to determine the control measures which needed to be taken immediately after the hypothesis has been developed. The control measures include the method of healthcare provision, medication, and other prevention measures which should be used to make sure that the outbreak is addressed. The final stage is to execute the measures and also apply the prevention measures (Kloim, 2010). The outbreak prevention is concluded by writing a detailed report which can be used as a reference and can be forwarded to superiors as well.
In most cases, outbreaks usually cause panic and it is important for nurse practitioners to address infection outbreaks with care. The residents of care home should be provided with the right information regarding the outbreak so that nobody is scared. In order to maintain normalcy, resident or the public should be educated on the effect of the outbreak, causes and prevention measures which everyone should observe to limit the impact of infection break. It is also important to manage the media perception and therefore, nurse practitioners should coordinate with the media (Macera, Richard, & Peggy, 2013). Through necessary information concerning the outbreak especially educative materials to inform the public to take serious measures to avoid the wide spread of the infection.
It is also important to work together with the media so that the right information is provided to the public to avoid panic in most care homes across the country. The information to the media should be managed to avoid giving information that can be misgiving. This can be achieved by providing relevant information to the media periodically. It is necessary for the nurse practitioner team to create a media briefing room where information. This will ensure that information going to the public is controlled so that the right information regarding the outbreak and the steps which nurses are taking to address the outbreak is outlined to the public hence there will be no panic.
References
Collins, A. S. (2014). Patient Safety and Quality: An Evidence-Based Handbook for Nurses.
Preventing Health Care–Associated Infections , 2-38.
Kloim, P. (2010). Advanced Nursing Practice Roles Guidance for NHS Boards .
http://www.advancedpractice.scot.nhs.uk/media/614/sg-advanced-practice-guidance-mar10.pdf
, 2-35.
Macera, C. A., Richard, S., & Peggy, M. (2013). Introduction to Epidemiology: Distribution and
Determinants of Disease. New York: Pearson Publishers .
Smith, K., & Molly, R. (2012). The Advanced Practice Nurse in the Community. College of
Nursing Faculty Papers & Presentations , 2-35.
