The Ugly Face of MRSA (2 CEU’s)

Introduction
Staphylococcus aureus is a common bacteria found on the skin or in the nose. It is often referred to as “Staph” for short. About one person out of every three has these bacteria on them. MRSA is a resistant strain of S. aureus. Staph bacteria is commonly carried on the skin or in the nose of healthy people and is one of the most common causes of skin infections in the U.S.

Enterococci is a bacteria that is usually located in the gut and can cause infections anywhere. Vancomycin is the drug of choice for treatment of an infection by enterococci. VRE are resistant to this drug. Many people are colonized with MRSA/VRE. Colonization is where the bacteria lives on or in one or more body sites but does not cause any problems or infections. Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is a bacterium that causes infections in different parts of the body. MRSA is tougher to treat than most strains of staphylococcus aureus — or staph — because it’s resistant to some commonly used antibiotics  
Statement of Purpose: The purpose of this module is to examine infectious diseases of MRSA and VRE. The learner will be able to demonstrate an understanding of these antibiotics resistant diseases and their role in preventing the spread of the infections by implementing and following MRSA/VRE precautions.

Performance Standards/Objectives.

Upon completion of this program, the home health aide (HHA) and Nurse Aide will be able to:

• Define a homecare-associated infection and hospital acquired infection
• Understand the seriousness of an methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and  vancomycin resistant enterococci (VRE) infection
• Identify patients at risk for MRSA/VRE infection
• Identify signs and symptoms of infection
• Implement MRSA/VRE precautions

Instructions for taking the course

To complete the course successfully, you must go through all the lessons below. You MUST mark each lesson as complete by clicking the MARK COMPLETE BUTTON. If you do not click the mark complete button, you will not be allowed to proceed to the next lesson. Please notice that all lessons have a minimum set amount of time that you are expected to spend on each lesson. You will not be allowed to Mark the Lesson Complete until the timer resets to zero; that is, until the minimum time set for the course has passed. For example if lesson A has an allocated minimum time of 10 minutes, you will have to wait 10 minutes before you can mark Lesson A complete. The Mark Complete button for lesson A will be grayed out and will not become active until 10 minutes are over.

WARNINGIf you forget to click the Mark Complete button done, you will be prompted to go back to that lesson again and have to wait till the allocated timed minutes resets to zero again before the Mark Complete button becomes active. After all lessons are completed and they are Marked Completed, you will then be allowed to take the post test. If you successfully pass the quiz, you will earn CEU’s for this course and you can proceed to print out your certificate.

LESSONS & QUIZ BELOW