The healthcare marketplace in the next millennium and nurses' roles in infection prevention and control

For the past several years, constant changes in the health care marketplace have been dominated by the demand to manage costs. This has resulted in de clining numbers of hospitals, hospital beds, and occupancy rates, along wit h increasing severity of illness in the patients who are hospitalized. It h as long been known that infection prevention and control activities reduce risks for morbidity and mortality in patients and caregivers. Infection ris k reduction activities are integral to nursing care delivery in any health care setting; however, the increasing stresses on care providers and declin ing staff-to-patient ratios compromise these priorities. Nurses share respo nsibility for infection risk reduction with other health care personnel who all need to work together with infection control professionals (ICPs) to d evelop and use prevention and control strategies based on scientific eviden ce.