Roles of infection control nurses in community hospitals.

OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the roles of infection control nurses (ICNs) and to detect problems, obstacles during work and needs for support in community hospitals. MATERIAL AND METHOD: A descriptive study, data from interview and questionnaire survey of 2 ICN from HA awarded hospitals and 146 IC nurses from hospitals applied for HA. RESULTS: From April to May 2002, questionnaires were returned for 115 (81.56%) plus 7 interviews for a total of 122 samples. The practiced HA IC roles included counseling (86.5%), surveillance (83.1%), administration (82.8%), employee health (82%), education (80%), quality development (76.3%), epidemic investigation (72.2%) and research (10.4%). The major problems and obstacles included inadequate IC knowledge, multiple responsibilities, inadequate cooperation, less administrative support, inadequate budget and documents. CONCLUSION: The present study suggested that the IC research role was the least done because of inadequate knowledge, too heavy work load and lack of administrative support.

Impacts of nosocomial infection among elderly patients in Inburi Hospital.

OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the length of stay, total medical expenditure, cost of antibiotics for nosocomial infections (NIs) and NI fatality rate of elderly patients admitted to Inburi Hospital. MATERIAL AND METHOD: A descriptive study, data from analyzing NI surveillance forms of 50 elderly patients admitted to Inburi Hospital with NI from February to May 2002. RESULTS: The average length of stay of the samples was 22.9 days, medical expenditure was 67,265 baht per patient, cost of antimicrobial drugs was 9,128.90 baht per patient and case fatality rate was 42%. CONCLUSION: The study revealed that NI in the elderly were associated with increased length of stay, costs of antimicrobial agents, total medical expenditure and a high case fatality rate.