139844 Level 2 Unit Ico1 The Principles Of Infection Prevention And Control Exemplar Candidate Work

making sure employees are aware of the health and safety aspects of their work (e.g. posting information on notice boards, keeping an information file such as COSHH, training, and providing

Following infection control policies and procedures. These will reduce the threat of cross infection and reduce staff absences through sickness.

As employees we must ensure we attend all necessary trainings that our employers provide regarding infection control and prevention. If an employee comes across a hazard such as bodily fluids spilt in an area or a staff member not wearing gloves you must report it immediately to a senior staff member and not ignore it as

The provision and use of personal protective equipment could include using gloves, glasses, earmuffs, aprons, safety footwear, dust masks.

1.2: Employers responsibilities in the relation to the prevention and control of infection are to keep everybody safe and to provide a safe work place, they do this by following current legislation. A few examples taken from the HSAWA are COSHH, The Public Health (control of diseases) Act, Food Safety Act

It is the responsibility of employees to ensure they attend all necessary training that the employers provide regarding infection control and prevention. If an employee comes across a hazard such as bodily fluids spilt in an area or a staff member not wearing gloves you must report it immediately to a senior staff member and not ignore it as this may cause infection to spread.

* Disposable plastic aprons may be worn to protect the healthcare workers’ clothing from moisture or soiling.

1.1 explain at least 3 examples of employees roles and responsibilities in relation to prevention and control of infection

Maintaining high standard of hygiene and health are essential in preventing the spread of transferable disease and ensuring good health for the community. (The Department of Health & Human Services, State Government of Victoria, Australia, 2016)

Relating back to my previous work I noted that it was essential that nurses wore aprons during patient care, ensuring that they discarded of them after patient contact. Not only does wearing an apron act as a barrier it is also recognised as a type of PPC (Personal protective clothing). Cadlin J, Stark S (2005) suggests that the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) (1991, 1992) says “Health and Safety Regulations require that all healthcare employees are provided with personal protective clothing”. However McCullough (1998) suggests that nurses’ uniforms are not considered protective clothing and that protection within the NHS is provided by the use of disposable aprons. Surprisingly some healthcare workers and qualified nurses were not discarding aprons after patient contact, not only is this bad practice but it increases the risk of cross infection between patients. Babb et al (1983) within Candlin J, Stark S (2005) article found that “although micro-organisms can survive for varying lengths of time and adhere to plastic aprons, they do not multiply and are difficult to redistribute”.

Abstract: Hospital acquired infections was a big problem of the past. Due to lack of knowledge and skill, and negligible precaution habits, patients would come into the hospital ill with one disease and end up getting sick with another disease as well. Organizations such as the CDC and the World Health Organization have informed the public about health disorders and harmful diseases, and also have set guidelines and standards for effective infection and disease control. However, in some cases, education is key in being able to prevent certain diseases and infections because how could you prevent something you know nothing about. This paper will examine and compare the precaution techniques from the early 80s to the present and show how much has changed since the early 80s regarding infection control. This paper will also show how important education and knowledge about a specific disease plays a key role in triumph over public health illness and preventing a disease from spreading at an even faster rate, and how simple precautions can be taken everyday to protect you against acquiring infections.

Poor hand hygiene is a barrier to staff and patient infection control. Hand hygiene is the most observed infection prevention practice because it is the easiest to do and it can easily be monitored for efficacy (Carter et al., 2014). Hand hygiene compliance was introduced by the World Health Organization with monitoring before and after patient contact (Carter et al., 2014).

Hand hygiene is widely acknowledged to be one of the important precautions to reduce the spread of diseases. Hands should be decontaminated before direct contact with patients, and after any activity, including the removal of gloves. In order to prevent the spread of infections, health care workers must:

Many health care professionals are opposed to wearing the wristbands because they are an annoyance, disturbing them on a daily basis. However, their behavior needs to change for the sake of the patient. It may seem a bit humiliating, but it is beneficial to avoid nosocomial infections. In the beginning, it may seem terrible, but the outcome will be very positive, because of the increase in hand washing, which have been shown to lead to lower transmission of infections. Research shows that hand washing improved in health care workers who wore the wristband from 25 percent to 44 percent when it was first initiated (Korones, 2012).

According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), an estimated 1.7 million infections resulting in 99,000 deaths occur as a result of hospital acquired infections each year. The health care worker’s hands are the most common mode of transmission of healthcare-associated pathogens. Hand hygiene remains the leading preventive practice that can break the chain in the spread of hospital infections. However, this problem is still one of the most overlooked preventive measures in patient care. To improve the performance of hand hygiene among health care workers, performance barriers such as time, forgetfulness, and poor access to hand hygiene materials need to be addressed. Consistent performance improvement with this practice insures a reduction in infection rates and is a major component not only of patient protection, but healthcare providers as well.