Ventilator-Associated Pneumonia

Ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) bundles
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Introduction
Pneumonia is one of the diseases that is ranked as the deadliest among children and adults in many societies. When pneumonia is not treated at its earliest, it could lead to destruction of body organs and in more severe cases it could result in death. There are various types of pneumonia and one type is the ventilator-associated pneumonia. This form of pneumonia affects patients in hospitals who have previously been put in tubes for breathing. When a patient has difficulty breathing, they are assisted to breath by a machine. Tubes are hence connected from the machine that is the source of the oxygen into the body. There is also another tube that directs the used air out of the body. When a patient is intubated, he is at high risk of contracting ventilator- associated pneumonia (Tablan et al, 2013). It is for this reason that a strategy must be devised that will prevent cases of this nature from occurring.
Background Information
Despite the fact that ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) is an ailment that can be prevented, it still is one of the largest contributory factors of hospital deaths. Of even greater concern is that majority of patients in hospitals do not die because of the ailments for which they were hospitalized. Rather, they die as a result of VAP. The management of hospitals have been faulted for not taking action to prevent this ailment from occurring. In light of the above, steps have been taken by introducing bundles. The bundles are mainly meant to deal with oral health and thereby reduce chances of VAP. The bundles of prevention of VAP may not seem to have an impact in the beginning. However, with time, there are a lot of significant changes that greatly reduce the chances of patients contracting the ailment.
When a patient is ventilated, the mouth tends to attract a lot of bacteria as result of inactivity. These bacteria are the primary reason why ventilated patients end up at high risks of suffering from VAP. With the use of bundles, there is now introduction of a chemical known as chlorhexidine gluconate. This chemical comes in form of a gel and is administered on the patients three times in a day (Rello et al, 2012). Administration of this drug helps to reduce the strength of the bacteria in the mouth and hence significantly reducing chances of suffering from VAP by the ventilated patient. Although it is newly introduced, the use of bundles in patients among both ventilated and non-ventilated patients has seen a...