Abbreviated as MRSA, Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, is regarded as one of the number one causes of nosocomial infections in hospitals across the world. It results in infections such as skin, soft tissue pneumonia, and sepsis. Usually, MRSA infections are caused either by contact transmissions or lack of compliance with the standard procedures in hospital settings (Bihan, Zahar & Timsit, 2017). The former is the most frequent cause of MRSA infection that occurs through direct contact between an infected or colonized patient and a susceptible health care worker or another person. The aim of this study is to determine whether contact precautions are more effective than standard precautions in preventing healthcare-associated infections during a patient’s hospital stay, among patients with MRSA infections.
The extraneous variables for this study will be a sample population of 12 health workers at a local hospital that takes care of patients who have MRSA infection. The MRSA-infected patients will be divided into two groups; Group A and Group B. Health workers attending to Group A will use contact precautions such as avoiding direct contact with the patients. On the other hand, group B will observe standard precautions such as hand rubbing using alcohol-based sanitizers and solutions, wearing of personal protective equipment before such as gloves, aprons and gowns, and eye masks before attending to the patients. Also, adequate procedures for routine care which include the cleaning and disinfection of beds, bedside equipment, bedrails and other surfaces that are often touched should be ensured. The respective health care workers will be the control group for testing to which group MRSA infections were prevented most.
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Health workers in the hospital should have no prior history of MRSA. This sample will be derived from screening where the outcome has to be initially negative. The health workers will be randomly selected. Also, the patients will be randomly selected with multiple variables among them diabetes, skin burns, wounds, rashes, surgery, drains, colonization pressure, and chronic liver disease. The patients will be a total of 140. The inclusion criteria will include all patients with the above infections. The exclusion criteria will be a lack of consent.
In this study, it will be essential to choose a sampling of the source population with justification to avoid bias on selection. Internal validity should be ensured through a transparent method that ensures follow up and the absence of variables that may bias the data (Jeanes, Coen, Gould & Drey, 2019). External validity, on the other hand, will allow for the results to be generalized to other hospital settings and for comparisons in hospitals that would allow a test-retest to be done on the same sample population. Looking at the correlations between the two tests will determine the reliability of the test.
The intervention will include an MRSA screening strategy on Group A and Group B together with their respective health workers. It will involve a testing modality using the polymerase chain reaction whose results are available on the same day the test will be done. It may also include isolation and decolonization.
The data collection procedure will involve the insertion of a dual swab validated for the test. The swab will be turned around carefully with slight pressure and will be performed in hospital settings. The test will determine the results to be either negative or positive for MRSA for the group that used either standard or contact precautions. The collected data will then be statistically analyzed to determine among the two methods which are the most effective in preventing healthcare-associated infections in hospitals.
References
Bihan, C. L., Zahar, J. R., & Timsit, J. F. (2017). Staphylococcus aureus transmission in the intensive care unit: the potential role of the healthcare worker carriage. Annals of Infection , 1 (3).
Jeanes, A., Coen, P. G., Gould, D. J., & Drey, N. S. (2019). The validity of hand hygiene compliance measurement by observation: A systematic review. American journal of infection control , 47 (3), 313-322.
