Hospital-acquired infections: Risk factors and prevention practices.

Introduction: Hospital-acquired infections are a major issue that negatively affects the quality of healthcare provided. A nosocomial infection is defined as an infection that was not previously present in the patient's body, either at the incubation stage or in the incubation stage and is acquired during hospitalization. Aim/Purpose: The main purpose of this literature review is to investigate the risk factors surrounding the phenomenon of infections that develop within the hospital environment, as well as to document nursing practices that aim to prevent hospital-acquired infections. Methodology: PubMed, ScienceDirect and Trip Database were used to conduct this literature review. Review and research articles published in English language were selected and the time span was mainly defined as the last fifteen years (2010-2024). The following keywords were searched for: "infection control", "infection prevention", "nosocomial infection", "nursing care quality", "risk factors". Results/Findings: The review of the literature sources revealed numerous factors that pose a risk for the development of infections. These factors are classified into exogenous and endogenous, depending on whether they accompany the patient on admission or are acquired during hospitalization. In addition, various practices that nursing staff can adopt and through which the prevention of nosocomial infections is facilitated were highlighted. These practices are mainly focused on adherence to protocols. Conclusion/Discussion: Hospital-acquired infections pose a major challenge to the healthcare system. However, it has been shown that collaboration among healthcare professionals and the implementation of best practices play a decisive role in both preventing these infections and improving the quality of healthcare services.

Keywords: infection control, infection prevention, Nosocomial infection, nursing care quality,   risk factors