Infection Control

Nosocomial Infection? Does it ring a bell? According to Wikipedia, “an infection whose development is favoured by a hospital environment, such as one acquired by a patient during a hospital visit or one developing among hospital staff” It is now known as Health Care Associated Infection. Our professor during our training said that it does not happen only in hospital but also in different health care facilities. That is why it is termed as Health Care Associated Infection. Because of the occurrences of this, many hospitals have formulated their own Infection Control Committee. It also became part of the requirement of Department of Health.

So for the benefit of everyone in the hospital, our beloved Infection Control Nurse, Mr. Dennis Reyes, organized a seminar entitled “Understanding Health Care Associated its New Trend of Prevention.” It was held last October 23, 2012 at UNIHEALTH Tagaytay Hospital and Medical Center Auditorium. Staffs from different department, from Housekeeping to the Nursing Service Department attended the seminar. I am privilege that Mr. Dennis invited us(trainees).

I am honoured to be accidentally seated at the back of the speaker. I am nervous that she might throw a question at me then I won’t be able to answer it since I still don’t know much about the hospital. The speaker was very approachable. In fact she was the one who talked to me and my seatmate. I’ve learned some tips from her while we were chatting before the seminar starts. Our speaker was Ms. Victoria D. Villanueva RN. She is the Infection Control Manager of St. Luke’s Medical Center Quezon City and Global City.

The Chairman of the Board of the hospital Mr. Geronimo David was also present as well as Dr. Jose Mario Maximiano who is the Assistant Chief Director of the hospital. They both gave us a short opening remarks before the program starts.

Dr. Jose Mario Maximiano 

Mr. Geronimo David 

The seminar made me more informed about the importance of Handwashing, the new trends in preventing infection and the different types of precautionary measures used in a cost effective manner. This kind of seminar must really be held in each hospital so that the employees will be knowledgeable about the benefit of handwashing and infection control. If one is knowledgable about the benefit of a certain program, he or she will be open to this and eventually they will participate.

Post Graduate Nursing Trainees Batch 15 with the speaker

As a nurse, it is vital that we care to our patients. We should keep it mind that patients go and seek health care services because they no longer want to feel the pain or suffering they experience because of the illness they acquired, so we must not contribute to that illness, instead we should help alleviate the pain and make the patient more comfortable. We need to realize the essence of Infection Control and Handwashing. So nurses, please please please. Let us prevent infection. Let’s NOT SPREAD INFECTION. PLEASE DO HANDWASHING BEFORE AND AFTER PATIENT INTERACTION. A simple act will help a lot.