... which suggest that 80% of healthcare associated urinary infections are caused by urinary catheters and 60% of healthcare associated infections of the blood can be traced to intravenous feeding lines and other such invasive devices (DoH, 2003). It also recognised that a patient's age, underlying medical condition and the length of their hospitalisation also increases the risk of the patient contracting a hospital associated infection (Borton and McCleave, 2000). Although these facts and figures may seem daunting, the situation can be improved by implementing a number of simple measures to break the chain of infection and prevent hospital associated infections occurring. For a nosocomial (healthcare associated) infection to occur there must be a susceptible host, an infectious agent and a means of transmission from the source of the infectious agent to the susceptible host (Huband and Trigg, 2000). If any of these components are not present the chain of infection ...

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