Nosocomial infections in critically ill patients

All hospitalized patients specially those who are critically ill are susceptible to have Nosocomial Infection. Aim: To conduct a detailed study of various types of nosocomial infections, related factors and control measures for the purpose of preparing a descriptive report on evidence of nosocomial infections in critically ill patients. Setting and Design: Critical Care Areas through quantitative research approach and non interventional descriptive research design was used for the present study based on Chain of Infection Model (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2005). Material and Method: A Structured Checklist and Nosocomial Infection Assessment Proforma was developed and used to collect data from purposively selected sample of sixty critically ill patients who became febrile after 48 hours of hospital admission. The collected data was organized, tabulated and analyzed and interpreted using descriptive and inferential statistics to assess Nosocomial Infection evidence. Results: Findings of the study revealed that maximum number of patients i.e. 32 (53.33%) had fever with one manifestation. Culture/serology report was positive in 26 CIP. Acinetobacter baumannii was the found in 12 (46.15%) patients. Most of the patients had only one type of NI, 26 (63.42%) developed respiratory tract infection followed by those with other localized/wound infection 15 (36.59%) then urinary tract 5 (12.19%) and GI tract 2 (4.88%). Measures for control of NI according to structure and process standards were not met. Item analysis revealed several deficits in control measures. Conclusion: Majority of the Critically ill patients do have manifestations of Nosocomial Infections, supporting the assumption. Therefore, descriptive report was prepared and planned to be shared with local TNAI member and Infection control team