Discussion of Disinfection Agents & Procedures

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Discussion of Disinfection Agents & Procedures

It is known that disinfection procedures play an important role in prevention of the spread of disease and elimination of the negative health outcomes in health care settings . Due to recognition of the seriousness of complications from health care associated infections, it is possible to strengthen safety protection methods in health care settings and achieve patient safety and safety of health care workers. Disinfection procedures should be implemented correctly to reduce the effects of pathogenic organisms. The cost of disinfection procedures or compound should be assessed to ensure cost-effectiveness. It is clear that prevention of disease is more cost-effective that dealing with the outbreak of disease. Thus, the following disinfection agents are used alcohol, Chlorine and Chlorine compounds, Formaldehyde, Glutaraldehyde, Hydrogen Peroxide, Iodophors, Ortho-phthalaldehyde, Peracetic Acid, Peracetic Acid and Hydrogen Peroxide, Phenolics, Quaternary Ammonium Compounds, and Miscellaneous Inactivating Agents. The real cost of procedures should be considered while developing the schedule of disinfection practices that should be implemented by a nurse during her eight hour working day. Discussion of Disinfection Agents & Procedures

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Besides, if the best practices are costly, there should be some sort of compromise to ensure that all people have access to the best procedures. As there are certain Recommendations for Disinfection and Sterilization in Health Care Facilities, it is critical to “reduce rates of health-care associated infections through appropriate use of both disinfection and sterilization” (Rutala & Weber, 2008, p. 83). The use of best practices should be based on combination of different methods of decontamination, disinfection and sterilization that should be incorporated into health care facility procedures. All people should have access to the best practices to avoid discrimination in the workplace or violation of basic human rights. The key idea is to prevent the spread of micro-organisms among patients and health care workers through the following ways of transmission: “contact (direct and indirect), respiratory droplets, airborne spread, and common vehicle” (Collins, 2008, p. 45).

Actually, there is much evidence taken from academic sources that suggests that there exists a trade off between safety of patients and safety of healthcare workers. According to researchers, “health care is not as safe and reliable as it might be” (Amalberti et al., 2005, p. 756). Both patients and healthcare workers need protection against diseases, but some efforts to improve safety are inefficient. There are three acute issues that affect the growth of the identified problem, including “a wide range of risk among medical specialties, difficulty in defining medical error, and various structural constraints (such as public demand, teaching role, and chronic shortage of staff)” (Amalberti et al., 2005, p. 756). There is a need for adopting cost effective, reliable safety strategies to ensure that both patients and health care workers are protected. There are several critical factors that should be considered by health care staff while developing these safety protection strategies, including the number and location of micro-organisms, innate resistance to them, assessment of the appropriateness of concentration of Disinfectants, some physical and chemical factors, duration of exposure to the germicide, and others (Rutala & Weber, 2008).Discussion of Disinfection Agents & Procedures

Thus, it is necessary to conclude that evidence-based recommendations should be used to maximize prevention efforts. Both patient safety and safety of health care workers should be provided in due time and manner. There is a need for considering the cost of disinfection procedures and relevant resources to guarantee equal access to relevant procedures. Due to well-developed and properly managed disinfection procedures and other effective and useful decontamination practices (cleaning and sterilization), it is possible to successfully prevent the spread of a large number of health care associated infections or avoid outbreak of disease.Discussion of Disinfection Agents & Procedures