Nurses Are The Key To Infection Control In Nursing Facilities

When it comes to skilled nursing facilities and nursing
homes, nurses are some of the key providers that provide
daily care to residents. These nurses are expected to adhere
to strict infection
control practices in order to ensure that infection
spread and disease is kept to a minimum, and yet nursing
facilities often have very high rates of
infection.

Prior to COVID-19, 380,000 nursing home
residents died due to infection annually. Things like
respiratory infections, skin and soft tissue infection,
influenza, and stomach related problems are some of the most
prominent diseases that are spread throughout nursing homes.
1 to 3 million serious infections occur every year in
nursing homes, skilled nursing facilities, and assisted
living facilities. With infection being so prevalent in
these communities, one would assume all necessary
precautions are taken, but in reality 40% of nursing homes
were cited for poor infection control practices prior to the
pandemic.

When the pandemic hit, these problems were
only elevated.While nursing home residents make up less than
1% of the US population, they accounted for 1 in 5
COVID-related deaths. COVID-19 unfortunately killed 136,000
nursing home residents along with 2,000 healthcare providers
in the facility. While conditions were already subpar
pre-pandemic in many facilities, a lack of staff and funding
only made things worse and now more than 300 nursing homes
have closed. Even in 2022 more than 400 US certified nursing
homes are on the brink of shutting down due to a lack of
staffing and funding.

When it comes to preventing the
spread of infections and COVID-19 in nursing facilities,
nurses play a key role. However, 89% of healthcare
organizations are experiencing a staffing shortage which has
greatly increased the stress level of remaining workers.
Since January of 2020, roughly 236,000 caregivers have left,
and the remaining nurses are left feeling exhausted,
overwhelmed, undervalued, frustrated, and stressed. Along
with that, more than 1 in 4 nurses have experienced
increased incivility or bullying from administration,
managers, supervisors, and other nursing staff. So with so
many nurses having left in the pandemic, more than half of
remaining nurses have considered leaving their
positions.

Nurses who did remain in their positions
also had to handle new policies being put in place along
with a shortage of personal protection equipment. These
nurses were forced to reuse their PPE even though nearly 2
in 3 felt unsafe doing so. Even last year nearly 75% of
facilities still didn’t have their staff N-95 fit
tested.

Healthcare providers that have stayed in their
facilities have obviously been handed extra work and stress,
and this can lead to skipping simple practices like washing
their hands. Skipping these very important steps along with
having to reuse PPE increases the likelihood of transmitting
infections and COVID-19. With so many facilities on the
verge of closing down, it is more important than ever to
ensure proper practices are in place to assist with
infection control. The best way to do that is to ensure that
nurses are supported with the proper equipment and tools,
along with updated training to ensure that they are able to
implement and practice safe policies.

Nurses in
facilities can benefit from once-monthly in person training
that focuses on how to prevent infection from spreading in
their facilities. These training sessions go back to the
basics before introducing more advanced techniques and
provide practical training rather than just general
guidelines. Even one day a month of in-person training can
help alleviate some pressure off of nurses to ensure that
their patients in assisted living facilities are receiving
the best possible
treatment.

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