Healthy People 2020
Respond to the following post with a long paragraph with your opinion add citations and references.
“Healthy People 2020 defines social determinants of health as conditions in the environments in which people live, learn, work, play, worship, and age that affect a wide range of health, functioning, and quality-of-life outcomes and risks…. Resources that enhance quality of life can have a significant influence on population health outcomes.
Examples of these resources include safe and affordable housing, access to education, public safety, availability of healthy foods, local emergency/health services, and environments free of life-threatening toxins (Social Determinants of Health: Know What Affects Health, 2018).” Just as these resources can enhance the quality of life, the lack of these resources can contribute to the development of illnesses.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “…transmission occurs when the agent leaves its reservoir or host through a portal of exit, is conveyed by some mode of transmission, and enters through an appropriate portal of entry to infect a susceptible host (Principles of Epidemiology in Public Health Practice, Third Edition; Section 10: Chain of Infection, 2012, para. 1).”
As nurses, we can help stop the spread of infections in the hospital. How many times have we went to a patients room that has an isolation sign outside and think I’m not planning on touching anything that’s contaminated while in the room, so why wear the proper isolation attire, or better yet, we go from one patients room to the next and do not take the time to either wash our hands or sanitize them? I see this happen every shift I work.
Healthy People
I have even saw a nurse try to argue with a doctor regarding wearing isolation attire. According to the CDC, “Most germs that cause serious infections in healthcare are spread by people’s actions. Hand hygiene is a great way to prevent infections. However, studies show that on average, healthcare providers clean their hands less than half of the times they should. This contributes to the spread of healthcare-associated infections that affect 1 in 25 hospital patients on any given day (Clean Hands Count for Safe Healthcare, 2017, para. 1).” To think by not washing our hands, we could be spreading c-diff, influenza, MRSA, etc. to a frail patient who might not be able to fight off the infection.
References:
Clean Hands Count for Safe Healthcare. (2017, 05). Retrieved 12 19, 2018, from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: .
Principles of Epidemiology in Public Health Practice, Third Edition; Section 10: Chain of Infection. (2012, 05). Retrieved 12 19, 2018, from Centers for Diseas Control and Prevention: https://www.cdc.gov/ophss/csels/dsepd/ss1978/lesso…
Social Determinants of Health: Know What Affects Health. (2018, 02). Retrieved 12 19, 2018, from Centers for Diseas Control and Prevention: https://www.cdc.gov/socialdeterminants/faqs/index.htm#faq1
Healthy People 2020