• Do not share towels, face cloths ect with others. • Use disposable items if / were possible • Wash clothes, bedding and towels at 60oc • Clean up any spillages (e.g. faeces and vomit ) immediately. • Disinfect cleaning cloths by soaking over night where possible and drying them thoroughly. As all ill people can carry bacteria for many weeks after recovery, you should maintain good hygiene standards even when the symptoms have gone.
Maintaining a high level of personal health and hygiene will also help in the prevention of infection. Health & social practitioners should be in attendance at any training days on offer relating to infection prevention and control. If any cases of possible infection risks are identified they should be reports immediately to your employer. 1.2. It is your employer’s responsibility to ensure that all laws and legal regulations concerning infection prevention and control are followed by employees.
264 The Principals of Infection Prevention and Control 1.1 Explain employees’ roles and responsibilities in relation to prevention and control of infection As a health and social care worker we have roles and responsibilities in relation to prevent and to control infection. We prevent infection by following infection control procedures and applying standard infection control principles to all situations all of the time. Also by cooperating with our employer in prevent and to control infection. Furthermore, we have to know and understand our organisation’s infection prevention and control policies and procedures which we can do by going to training for infection control. By ensuring that our own health and hygiene not pose a risk to service users and colleague.
1.2 Explain employee’s responsibilities in relation to the prevention and control of infection The employee has a duty of care for the service users you attend. This means you always act in the best interests of the service user and their care needs. You are responsible for following your employer’s workplace safety procedures correctly and reporting any problems regarding procedures or equipment used. In terms of infection control this means you should always wear PPE provided and attend any necessary training. Dispose of all waste materials and spillages in the correct way: * Clinical waste/used dressings – yellow bag * Needles, syringes, cannulas – yellow sharps box * Body fluids/urine, blood, faeces, vomit – down the sluice * Soiled
Infection Prevention and Control Good infection prevention and control is essential to ensure that people who use health and social care services receive safe and effective care. It is your employer’s responsibility that training, risk assessments and equipment are in place to enable you to carry out your daily duties to minimise risk to yourself or service users. It is your responsibility to follow all training and use all equipment and PPE provided by your employer. All employers are bound by The Health and Social Care Act 2008 and by the 10 codes of practice laid down by the CQC on how they judge a care provider and how it complies with the cleanliness and infection control requirements. The CQC Codes of practice |1 |Systems to manage and monitor the prevention and control of infection.
Daily tasks to complete to ensure a service users well being also include regular hand washing, making sure all staff are taught the correct way to wash hands thoroughly, carers always wear their PPE, to make sure all staff are trained in first aid and making sure the first aid box is always stocked up,staff are trained on the latest moving and positioning so they are always using equipment correctly, everything is kept clean and sterile to stop the spread of infection. Question 1b How duty of care contributes to the safeguarding or protection of individuals In our job role we contribute to the safeguarding or protection of the service users by raising concerns about anything we deem unfit, from equipment that is past its service date to reporting a member of staff we are concerned may be involved in abuse or neglect against a service user. We also use risk assessments to reduce the hazards and to prevent accidents happening, risk assessments are to be done when ever something has changed in that setting, or a service users needs change, this protects the service user and carer. It is our duty of care to protect the service users from harm so if we were to have any concerns we must report them immediately , If we did not do this we ourselves would be considered negligent or incompetent Question 2a Know how to address conflicts or dilemmas that may arise between an individual's rights and the duty of care
Within our work setting we carry out regular checks to ensure our working environments are safe before carrying out any tasks. We also have daily cleaning rota’s within clients homes to reduce the spread of any infections within the workplace. Describe how the duty of care affects your own work role: The duty of care I have within my work role is to keep myself and my service user safe at all times. I must also do the following: * Always act in the best interests of my clients and there care needs * Always act within my competence and decline to take on something which I don’t believe I can carry out safely * Keep my knowledge and skills up to date * Keep accurate records for clients * Only delegate or accept work when it is safe to do so * Protect all confidential information except where it conflicts with public interest or safety * Always wear correct PPE provided by my employer Every health worker has a duty of care not just towards clients but to themselves and their colleagues. It can be applied to every aspect of work, from duties to undertake, to equipment that they may need to carry out working safely.
Basic controls are: * Dispose of waste correctly * Wash hands when appropriate * Keep equipment clean * Remain vigilant and report potential hazards * Attend infection control training and keep updated * Wear clean PPE (personal protective equipment) for each person Maintaining personal hygiene. 1.2 The Health and Safety Legislation require that employers have a duty of care to protect employee for example: * Provide a safe workplace * Carry out risk assessments to assess the dangers of certain work activities * Provide training to staff * Provide PPE * Ensure regular health and safety checks are undertaken. The employer should have infection prevention control policies and procedures for the staff. The manager will support and advise the Carer in respect of these
Unit ICO1 The principles of infection prevention and control 1.1 One of the most important responsibilities care workers have in the prevention of infection is using standard precautions for all people. The principle of standard precautions is that all people are considered high risk, that is, they are considered a high infection risk. This includes yourself. You can prevent infection by doing the following Disposing of waste correctly Washing hands when appropriate Attending infection control training and keeping updated Maintaining personal hygiene Wearing clean PPE for each person If a person has an infection, your responsibilities will focus on controlling and limiting the spread of the infection. The steps taken to help prevent infections will be maintains, you will already be treating all people as high risk, but with confirmed infection outbreak, you will need to be more vigilant and record and report any changes in a person’s condition.
All nurses must understand and implement proper hand hygiene to prevent the transmission of bacteria and viruses in the hospital or any other health care environment. NMC States that the nurse maintains effective standard infection control precautions for every patient and follow the local policy on hand