Importance of Microbiology in Nursing: To prevent spread of infection, To maintain sterile field, To collect specimens, To implement immunization schedule in hospitals, Implementation, To combat infectious diseases, To implement Asepsis, To dispose of biomedical waste.
For nursing students, microbiology is a vital subject. The study of microbiology encompasses microorganisms such as bacteria, viruses, fungi, parasites, and so on, so nursing students should study microbiology throughout their careers. As a result, nursing students cannot overlook the importance of microbiology.
As part of nursing programs, microbiology is one course that nurses need to complete to get the science background they need to succeed in their future careers.
Nursing professionals need adequate education and training in microbiology to fulfill most of their roles in clinical practice (e.g., administering antibiotics, collecting and preparing samples for transport and delivery, communicating results to other healthcare professionals, and developing teaching materials).
The course is very detail-oriented and requires you to memorize a lot of information about microscopic organisms, their morphologies, and their modes of action. You are probably going to struggle if you don’t know some biology and chemistry basics, or you can’t memorize easily.
Students who major in Medical Microbiology need to know more about the bacteria that cause human illnesses, the diseases they cause, as well as how to diagnose, prevent, and treat them. Understanding the principles and principles of microbiology is crucial in understanding personal and community hygiene, the principles of hospitals, and how to prevent illnesses.
To prevent spread of infection
Infections propagate in different ways, and nurses should be aware of this. As well as contact (touch), air (airborne), droplets (sneezing, coughing), contaminated food and drink (foodborne), sexual contact (STDs), arthropod bites (vector born), and infected blood transfusions, some illnesses can be transmitted through contact, air (airborne), and airborne droplets (sneezing, coughing).
Nurses can utilize this knowledge to identify specialized infection control measures. By understanding how disease-causing organisms enter, exit, and spread from one individual to another, nurses can take specific measures to prevent infections within the hospital and community. Positive pressure rooms can benefit patients who suffer from tuberculosis, for instance.
To maintain sterile field
In hospitals, sterile fields must be established and maintained using microbiology techniques, which a nurse needs to be familiar with. Nursing must understand how to create and maintain sterile fields in operating rooms, for example, in order to prevent infection following surgery.
Remember to wash your hands before and after surgeries. Prevention or minimization of illness spread can be achieved through this basic, yet often overlooked action. Nurses benefit from hand washing by minimizing the number of microorganisms on their hands, thereby reducing their risk of hospital-acquired infections.
The nurse can also use microbiology knowledge to use sterile equipment, which is necessary for invasive procedures. The philosophy behind asepsis has its roots in microbiology. Sterilization processes need to be understood by nurses.
Microbiology knowledge can also be useful in dealing with biomedical waste disposal. Waste must be segregated into distinct bins according to its origin before being disposed of in order to prevent environmental pollution.
To collect specimens
Nursing practitioners must understand the importance of properly collecting specimens for bacteriological testing in order to achieve reliable results. In order to gather clinical specimens from appropriate sites such as pustules, blood, or stool, she must be familiar with a variety of infectious diseases and their modes of infection.
A nurse must know how important it is to collect specimens correctly for bacteriological analysis in order to obtain reliable results. In order to identify the organism responsible for an infection, it is necessary to collect a clinical specimen from the appropriate site of infection.
Based on microbiology knowledge, it is imperative to identify specific pathogens and deliver recommended antibiotics for a specific duration if mutations in microorganisms create treatment difficulties.
To implement immunization schedule in hospitals
In addition to immunizing patients against diseases such as diphtheria and MMR, nurses also play an important role in preventing other diseases. Thus, they must have a thorough understanding of the antisera and vaccines needed to prevent deadly diseases. A nurse should be knowledgeable about vaccine schedules and how vaccines are transported from production to administration via a cold chain.
Microbiology is a subset of immunology that can assist nurses in this endeavour. The nurse who knows immunology is well prepared for vaccines and is able to use the cold chain effectively for vaccination and vaccine protection.
Implementation of microbiology in nursing: Role of nurses in different units
Some of the areas discussed in a health care setting relate to microbiology’s role as a nursing specialty. Patients with contagious or infectious diseases are hospitalized in contagious or infectious wards. For example, the rabies ward or the gastroenteritis ward, and the nurse takes great care of them by taking precautions to prevent the infection from spreading to others. The nurse employs aseptic procedures while caring for patients.
Burns’ Unit: Importance of Microbiology in Nursing
In the initial stage of healing, a burn wound is sterile, but bacteria soon colonize it. A nurse takes special care to prevent the wound from becoming infected when caring for this type of patient. She uses sterile equipment and aseptic techniques when caring for such patients.
Operation theatres
Nurses ensure that the environment in the operating room (OT) is free of microbes before a procedure. It is done through the procedure of fumigating the operating room on a regular basis.
A targeted treatment is possible through the identification of microorganisms. Swabs are cultured from a variety of locations throughout the operation theatre to determine a theatre’s sterility. Culture plates should not grow organisms after incubation at 37°C overnight. It is imperative that any procedure performed on a patient is conducted under sterile conditions.
Obstetric units
Following delivery of a baby or an abortion, wound infection in the birth canal is a major cause of maternal mortality. As a result, an infection develops, leading to peritonitis or phlebitis. As the nurse takes care of the pregnant woman, she can also assist in the delivery of the baby and the puerperium phase.
This phase lasts six weeks after giving birth. Using aseptic techniques and sterile tools when caring for patients, she maintains a sterile working environment. During pregnancy, the nurse can help the woman with delivery assistance as well as when she is in the puerperium, the six-week period following childbirth.
Intensive Care Nursery
In critical care nurseries, specifically trained personnel with a thorough understanding of incubators, gastrostomy feeding, exchange transfusion, respirators, and umbilical catheters are employed. Nurses must maintain a sterile environment in these intensive care nurseries.
Central sterilization unit
In order to maintain correct sterile conditions in a health care setting, C S S U in a hospital must work efficiently. A nurse must have a thorough understanding of sterilisation procedures and controls in order to maintain high quality while providing nursing care. Proper disposal of biological waste created in hospital settings aids in the reduction of pollution and health risks linked with it.
To combat infectious diseases
It is possible for cross infection to occur during a hospital stay as well as the normal flora of immunocompromised patients becoming pathogenic. Therefore, microbiology is valuable when it comes to combating infectious diseases.
A nurse can gain a greater understanding of reproductive, morphological, and biochemical functions through microbiology. Emerging diseases and advanced molecular diagnostic techniques are brought to light by microbiology.
As part of antimicrobial stewardship, microbiology laboratories strive to improve patient outcomes, limit potential harm, avoid the development of resistant bacteria, and save healthcare costs by optimising antibiotic prescribing.
To implement Asepsis
Asepsis is implemented to control and prevent the spread of infections and to follow these principles, nurses must know how an infection is entering the body and leaving the body.
Having a more in-depth understanding of these bacteria allows a healthcare professional to provide safe and effective care to patients with weakened immune systems who could suffer an infection at any time.
The occurrence of bacteria is almost everywhere, with some of them beneficial to our health and others dangerous. A pathogen is a bacterium, virus, or another microbe that causes illness. A study of microbiology allows nurses to use the aseptic method during medical procedures to prevent the spread of dangerous bacteria and other pathogens.
To dispose of biomedical waste
There must be an appropriate way to dispose of biomedical waste, which is based upon microbiology principles. A nurse should be familiar with the processes used in hospitals to create and maintain sterile fields based on microbiological expertise. This is because some of them have the potential to become pathogenic under certain circumstances.
Biomedical waste must be disposed of. If biomedical waste is not properly disposed of, it may result in the outbreak of a terrible disease. As a result, proper biomedical waste disposal based on microbiology principles is required.
In addition to being associated with illnesses, bacteria and other microorganisms are also essential for waste recycling. As part of the natural environment, they are responsible for organic material degradation as well as nutrient recycling.
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