Deliverable 1: Responding to Disease Outbreaks

Competency

Evaluate responses of communicable diseases in healthcare today.

Scenario

You are the infection control nurse of a 100-bed inpatient healthcare facility. With the increasing potential for a communicable disease exposure in your facility, the chief clinical officer has tasked you with the creation of a hospital response plan for a communicable disease outbreak in your healthcare facility.

Instructions

Create a hospital response plan that effectively addresses a healthcare facility’s actions in response to a communicable disease outbreak of your choosing. The response plan should:

• Identify a communicable disease and explain why this particular disease necessitates a response plan
• Include guidance on the following:
  • Logistics: adequate physical resources and services required
  • Triage: appropriate protocols and location
  • Communication: timely and effective contact internal and external of the facility regarding a suspected or confirmed outbreak

•  
• Reflect the nurse’s ability to:
  • Assess and identify the disease outbreak
  • Support containment and treatment of the disease
  • Facilitate timely communication regarding the outbreak
• Be supported by current evidence
  •  

Resources

• For additional information on creating a response plan, visit https://rasmussen.libanswers.com/academics/faq/254529
• For additional information on hospital preparedness for epidemics, please visit The World Health Organization

Material

The Impact of Communicable Disease Threats.

Communicable disease threats are ever-changing, fluctuating in incidence and prevalence, varying in severity, and affecting healthcare in a number of ways. A particular communicable disease may be quite prevalent for a period of time, or in a particular area, only to be eradicated, or perhaps overshadowed by a more rampant disease. In addition, a disease may be thought to be eliminated, only to re-emerge and overwhelm a population.

With the increased mobility of the global population, the transmission of infectious diseases is becoming more of a concern (Manning, 2016). Healthcare providers from the U.S. are traveling overseas to respond to disease epidemics, and non-healthcare providers are going to the U.S. from these areas. Overseas travel has resulted in the introduction of emerging infectious diseases into the U.S. (Manning, 2016).

Another consideration is the effect of natural disasters on the transmission of infectious disease. When inhabitants of areas affected by disasters are displaced into neighboring countries, there is an increased incidence and prevalence of illness, as well as a lack of health services for communicable diseases, such as tuberculosis and HIV (Tappero et al., 2017). This increases the risk is exposure and transmission of these diseases to the neighboring inhabitants.

Bioterrorism must also be considered in relation to disease transmission. Although bioterrorism is not likely the first thing that comes to mind when thinking about communicable diseases, healthcare providers must be aware of the potential for communicable diseases, such as smallpox, to be utilized to purposefully infect a population (CDC, 2017).

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention provides information related to current disease outbreaks: https://www.cdc.gov/outbreaks/index.html

References:

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2017, September 15). Bioterrorism. Retrieved from https://www.cdc.gov/healthcommunication/toolstemplates/entertainmented/tips/Bioterrorism.html

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2018, October 18). CDC current outbreak list. Retrieved from https://www.cdc.gov/outbreaks/index.html

Tappero, J. W., Cassell, C. H., Bunnell, R., Angulo, F. J., Craig, A., Pesik, N….Martin, R. (2017). US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and its partners’ contributions to global health security. Emerging Infections Diseases, 23(13), S5-S14. https://dx-doi-org.ezproxy.rasmussen.edu/10.3201/eid2313.170946.

Assessing a Recent Threat

The devastation of the 2014 – 2016 outbreak of the Ebola virus was evidence of the continued lack of a timely and effective plan for response. With over 11,000 deaths in West Africa attributed to the outbreak (CDC, 2017), there is still work to be done to improve the response to this type of threat.

 

Manning, M.L. (2016). Emerging infectious diseases: Global to local implications. Journal of Legal Nurse Consulting, 27(3), 12-16. Retrieved from http://ezproxy.rasmussen.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=rzh&AN=118931020&site=eds-live S5-S14. https://dx-doi-org.ezproxy.rasmussen.edu/10.3201/eid2313.170946.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2017, December 27). 2014-2016 Ebola outbreak in West Africa. Retrieved from https://www.cdc.gov/vhf/ebola/outbreaks/2014-west-africa/index.html

Jalloh, M. F., Robinson, S. J., Corker, J., Wenshu, L., Irwin, K., Barry, A. M., & … Li, W. (2017). Knowledge, attitudes, and practices related to Ebola virus disease at the end of a national epidemic – Guinea, August 2015. MMWR: Morbidity & Mortality Weekly Report, 66(41), 1109-1115. http://dx.doi.org/10.15585/mmwr.mm6641a4.

The Nurses Response

The nurse’s response to communicable disease is of particular importance as nurses are often the first to come into contact with those seeking treatment for a communicable disease. Several components that have been attributed to a nurse’s ability to respond to and manage an infectious disease.

References

Lam, S. K. K., Kwong, E. W. Y., Hung, M. S. Y., Pang, S. M. C., & Chiang, V. C. L. (2018). Nurses’ preparedness for infectious disease outbreaks: A literature review and narrative synthesis of qualitative evidence. Journal of Clinical Nursing, 27(7–8), e1244–e1255. https://doi-org.ezproxy.rasmussen.edu/10.1111/jocn.14210

The first individuals likely to assess an individual with an infectious disease is the nurse working in the emergency department setting. Because of this, emergency department nurses must be actively involved in infection control and disease prevention measures. When an emerging infectious disease presents itself, modifications in the workflow may be required to meet the needs of the victims, while keeping themselves and other patients safe (Lam, Kwong, Hung, & Pang, 2016). These modifications need to be supported by guidelines that assist nurses in making decisions and judgments that will help ensure the safety of all of those involved.

A study by Lam et al. (2016) focused on the gap between these guidelines and actual nursing practice in the emergency department setting. Nurses were able to identify several barriers to complying with the guidelines that were focused on emerging infectious diseases. Many of these examples related to a lack of time. Nurses reported that the time to perform hand hygiene and utilize appropriate personal protective equipment could hinder compliance (Lam et al., 2016). However, nurses also verbalized the likelihood that they would comply with infection control measures if they felt a particular client was more at risk for being infectious, such as recent travel to an outbreak-infected area (Lam et al., 2016). These findings are particularly worrisome, as we see nurses deviating from guidelines, which were put in place to minimize the chance of disease transmission.

The same study also discussed how the lack of infrastructure made it difficult for nurses to comply with infection control measures. Lam et al. (2016) discuss a nurse’s concerns for utilizing resuscitation rooms as isolation rooms, as occupying these rooms for quarantine purposes left risk for a patient who may need the room for resuscitation measures. Nurses remain concerned for the welfare of the other patients requiring routine emergency care, and how the focus on emerging infectious diseases may take away from the other important interventions occurring in the emergency department (Lam et al., 2016).

These examples provide insight into the obstacles related to responding to infectious diseases in the emergency setting. Though nursing should always be focused on compliance with infection control measures, it is evident that interventions are needed to overcome the barriers that make compliance with these measures more difficult. Hospital administration should focus on developing guidelines for responding to infectious disease and removing the barriers and obstacles in order to comply with the guidelines.

References

Lam, S. K., Kwong, E. W., Hung, M. S., & Pang, S. M. (2016). Bridging the gap between guidelines and practice in the management of emerging infectious diseases: A qualitative study of emergency nurses. Journal of Clinical Nursing, 25(19–20), 2895–2905. https://doi-org.ezproxy.rasmussen.edu/10.1111/jocn.13343

 

World Health Organization. (2015, January). Emergencies preparedness, response: Factors that contributed to undetected spread of the Ebola virus and impeded rapid containment. Retrieved from http://www.who.int/csr/disease/ebola/one-year-report/factors/en/

We will process your orders through multiple stages and checks to ensure that what we are delivering to you, in the end, is something that is precise as you envisioned it. All of our essay writing service products are 100% original, ensuring that there is no plagiarism in them. The sources are well-researched and cited so that it is interesting. Our goal is to help as many students as possible with their assignments, i.e. our prices are affordable and services premium.

Looking for a Similar Assignment? Order a custom-written, plagiarism-free paper

 WhatsApp

Your assignment woes end here!