The prevention of perioperative infection in elderly patients Essay

The prevention of perioperative infection in elderly patients - Essay Example 27). The United States reports perioperative infection caused deaths at 97,000 per year (Schneider, 2006). The Institute of Medicine qualified those results further, estimating that between 44,000 and 98,000 of those reported deaths occurred as a direct result of medical errors (Watson, 2006, p. 22). Even in England, amidst our own medical facilities where our own health care professionals practise stringent infection control, these preventable infections occur far too often. Recently, Britain's most senior doctor, Sir Liam Donaldson, reported death risk due to medical error at 1 in 300 (Hall). This includes patients having contracted infections within the hospital settings. "Between 5% and 10% of patients admitted to modern hospitals in the developed world acquire one or more infections, with at least 5,000 deaths directly attributed to healthcare-acquired infections in England each year" (Hall, 2006). Older people are a specific demographic at risk for perioperative infections due to their higher incidence of diabetes and hypertension, and their immunological systems particularly susceptible to the adverse affects of prolonged smoking and obesity. While caring for elderly patients and assessing their likelihood at incurring surgery-related infections, there are a number of risk factors that should be assessed. Infection control entails hospital procedures both prior to surgery and utilisation of infection control programmes throughout surgery. There are also specific practises for complex procedures maintained in orthopaedics and cardiothoracic surgeries by Multi Disciplinary Teams. All hospital personnel must take care to follow infection control procedures and be aware of avenues and risk factors for infections, in order that older patients are cared for effectively and their infections prevented. Risk factors in older people Older people are more at risk from infection during hospitalisation due to their oftentimes immunological compromised status. Immunological debility in elderly patients arises in a variety of settings for multiple reasons. It has been shown that arriving to surgery from elderly health-care facilities is a significant indicator of perioperative and postoperative infection (Lee, 2006). This is logical due to the very fact that health-care facilities house the most compromised patients in the older persons demographic. To explain this further, it is certain that patients with diabetes, overweight patients, and obese patients have an increased risk of infection (Preventing, 2006). Likewise, poor nutrition and lack of activity cause patients to be immunocompromised. But it is not only older patients in health care facilities that warrant attention from the health industry. Studies show than anyone above 60 year of age may be at a higher risk of perioperative infection (Pugliese, 2005). The National Confidential Enquiry into Perioperative Deaths (NCEPOD) maintains a practise of reviewing data reported on specific demographic groups each year. The NCEPOD's work is the collection of information on patients who die within 30 days of a surgical procedure (Kmietowicz, 1999, p. 1324). Due to the seemingly unnecessary incidence of death among the aging demographic, the 1999 report specified more care for the elderly. This prudent step seems

End of Course Assessment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

End of Course Assessment - Essay Example Evidence about this is available to us both through Roman literature and what we know about how Roman villas were constructed. Although some of this evidence might be questionable, it can still give us important clues into how Roman villa-owners spent their leisure time, which can in turn show us the different ideas about the value and purpose of leisure in ancient Rome and how they continued to affect society long into modern times. Two philosophers who had important ideas about what leisure meant, how to use it, and who should have it were Aristotle and Epicurus. Aristotle was probably Plato’s most famous student of philosophy, who went on to become a philosopher in his own right. Two of Aristotle’s works which deal with questions of leisure are â€Å"the Politics and the Nichomachean Ethics† (Price 2008, p11). In these two works, Aristotle tries to answer questions about leisure that ultimately lead him to ask â€Å"a rather different question: what is it to be an excellent human being?† (Price 2008, p13). The reason Aristotle was interested in this question is because he had somewhat unusual views about leisure. He believed that â€Å"leisure and well-being are intimately connected: living well involves having plenty of leisure, and using it in the best possible way† (Price 2008, p12). Today, most people would probably say that leisure was just what you do after you’re finished working, but Aristotle did not agree with that either. When he talked about leisure, he did not mean just lying around and relaxing, doing nothing. Instead, he used it to mean â€Å"the pursuit of activities that we value for their own sake† (Price 2008, p12). More importantly, Aristotle did not just mean any activity at all. Instead, he wanted the activities to be those which made excellent human beings. So for Aristotle, leisure was pursuing excellence for its own sake, instead of for some other purpose. Of course, being a privileged philosopher, he