[Isolation precautions in multi drug resistent infections and nursing workload in a general intensive care unit]

Area of Science:

• Infectious Diseases
• Critical Care Medicine
• Nursing Management

Background:

• Intensive care unit (ICU) patients face a high risk of hospital-acquired infections.
• Multi-drug resistant (MDR) microorganisms pose a significant and growing epidemiological challenge.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the correlation between implementing isolation precautions for MDR infections and the resulting nursing workload.
• To assess the impact of different isolation precaution levels on nursing care demands.

Main Methods:

• A study involving 44 ICU patients with MDR infections (including Acinetobacter Baumannii, Klebsiella KPC, MRSA, Pseudomonas, Escherichia coli, Serratia marcescens, and Clostridium difficile) was conducted in 2012.
• Patients were placed under isolation precautions indicated by color codes (green, yellow, red).
• Nursing workload was quantified using the Nursing Activities Score (NAS).

Main Results:

• The average NAS score across all studied patients was 81.54 ± 10.25.
• NAS scores for patients under green, yellow, and red code isolation were 81.25 ± 22.12, 82.57 ± 11.25, and 79.06 ± 29.12, respectively.
• No significant difference in NAS scores was observed between different isolation code groups.

Conclusions:

• The findings suggest that isolation precautions for most MDR infections do not substantially alter nursing workload as measured by the NAS score.
• A notable exception is Acinetobacter Baumannii infection, which may be associated with increased nursing workload.
• Further research is recommended to comprehensively evaluate the relationship between isolation precautions and nursing workload in critical care settings.