Crush It Hey everybody Dr. O here. In this video, I want to talk about nosocomial infections, also known as Healthcare-Associated Infections. So I still call them nosocomial infections. Nosocomial is Latin for hospital, but healthcare-associated infections is gonna to be the term you hear more often, and that’s because these are infections that you get while you are receiving treatment in a healthcare facility or really anywhere for that matter. So you can’t really call them hospital-acquired infections like they did for a while, because this could be a physical therapist clinic, a surgery center, in-home healthcare can actually do nosocomial or healthcare-associated infections, so just think that infection you get while you are receiving care for some other condition. Alright, so why do they matter, and then we’ll talk about why they are so powerful. So number one um even though we have infection control committees, we do our best, I mean you guys as healthcare students you, know about sterile fields and taking proper precautions, and handwashing and all these things. There are still 2 million nosocomial infections per year, leading to 20,000 or more deaths per year. So actually at this point um nosocomial infections are the 8th leading cause of death. So, let’s look at um, why these microbes are so uh dangerous, and then we’ll talk about where they happen, and which ones are the most common and which ones are the most deadly. So we have uh this is a vin diagram I made to describe this, so you see number one the microbes in the healthcare environment, number two we have compromised host and number three we have a train, a chain of transmission. So let’s look at all 3 and see this is what leads to these healthcare-associated infections. Excuse me Number one the microbes. So think about a microbe that is living in a hospital. Number one it may have been already been a scary microbe because it made somebody sick and brought them to a healthcare environment or like a hospital, but also think of what’s its been through. It’s had quats thrown at it, maybe UV light right, bleach all sorts of different things. So if you’re still alive and you live in a hospital room or a, or a surgery center or something like that, you are tough right, you are, you ARE the fittest. You’re the survivor. So think number one tough microbes. Number two we have weak host, compromised host. So think about the people that are receiving healthcare. Uh generally their immunocompromised either really young or really old. Right if you’re really young you don’t have a mature immune system. If you’re really old it’s starting to weaken. Uh maybe you are having surgery, uh obviously maybe you need something put into your body like a catheter, an IV catheter, a respiratory apparatus, whatever it might be. Uh maybe you have a burn. Uh maybe you have immunocompromised because you are pregnant. Maybe you have cancer, you are undergoing chemotherapy. I think you get the point. So you have really tough microbes, in in in weak people, right compromised people. So that’s bad enough. And then number three, we have the chain of transmission. So this is one, where I always think back, I don’t remember the specifics, but I remember on a on a show called House, a few years ago, there uh a baby was, at least one baby died, others got really sick and they couldn't figure out what was happening. Ended up being a volunteer in this hospital was delivering little teddy bears to newborn babies and she was spreading, was basically like the typhoid Mary of the gift shop. So uh think about all the people that come into your hospital room or all the people you come into contact with when you’re receiving healthcare. So, uh even in-home healthcare, where um was, where was your provider, right before they came to see you. What might they have brought with them, these types of things. But so think about um people bringing food, um pastors and priests coming into the room, your family and friends, doctors and nurses, techs, everyone so all these people could potentially be carrying microbes around. Think about the people that made your food. People that, think about the people that uh put together your floral arrangements, and all these kinda things. So, uh I think you get the point. So really tough microbes, weak hosts, and microbes being carried and moved all throughout the healthcare setting. So this is why we have microbes that are capable of leading to these nosocomial infections. Um so like as far as let’s talk about most common, and most dangerous, most deadly real quickly, but the actual microbes change it bounces back and forth from things like staph and C. Diff and strep eh eh pseudomonas is a big one now. So the individual microbes there there going to change but uh the most common cause of nosocomial infections is going to be catheters. So think urinary tract infections, from um um from urinary catheters, bacteremia from intravenous catheters so that uh ah when you put those two together they are the most common cause of nosocomial infections. Then of course surgical site infections, that makes a lot of sense you just cut a hole into someone. Uh there’s uh there is a really good chance the microbes are going to get in. Um gastrointestinal ones as well, like you see like c-diff infections, and other GI infections are now becoming very common. So as but as far as most common think um, catheters, think UTIs, think blood-borne infections from catheters. Um most deadly, highest mortality rate, that's going to be your lower respiratory infections, like pneumonia. So, um I think that’s pretty much all you have to know about these nosocomial infections, its your job and your clinical training um to learn how to control these infections, and hopefully keep them from happening. But that’s what they are, and that’s how they came to be. Alright, have a wonderful day. Be blessed!