Explain Employees ' Roles And Responsibilities

To ensure effective hand washing is carried out when working with service users, giving personal care, handling/preparing food.

| State why and when health and safety control equipment, identified by the principles of protection, should be used relating to types, purpose and limitations of each type, the work situation, occupational use and the general work environment, in relation to:–   collective protective measures–   personal protective equipment (PPE)–   respiratory protective equipment (RPE)–   local exhaust ventilation (LEV).

Procedures and systems relevant to the prevention and control of infection are following companies’ policies and procedures which relate to correct hand washing procedure, wearing correct PPE for example gloves, aprons and protective clothing, the correct disposal of waste and using the correct cleaning equipment when cleaning spillages, surfaces, equipment, etc.

As a health care professional, I will help to ensure that work environment is safe by following the rules. Trashing materials in appropriate cans is the most important for all employees in the building. Knowing my responsibilities for my own health and safety in the workplace. If I found something unsafe condition, I will report immediately to my employer. Using personal protection equipment is important for your own safety.

health and safety procedures and practises should be under continual scrutiny and areas for improvement should be monitored and dealt with. A good method of monitoring & improving are health, safety and security procedures are visually. Check visitors have signed in the visitor’s book, look for items blocking fire exits or hallways, wet signs are in place during cleaning, COSHH cupboards are kept locked, medication trolleys are secure, hoists are clean and stored in a correct storage place. Policies and procedures need to be reviewed regularly to ensure they are still relevant, circumstances in workplace can change and new risk assessments will need to be put in place or old ones reviewed. Policies and procedures may need evaluating and developing

prevention. If an employee comes across a hazard such as bodily fluids spilt in an area or a staff member not wearing gloves you

Own health or hygiene might pose a risk to individuals or others at work by causing infections, causing illness or causing fatalities, this can be prevented by washing hands thoroughly before preparing food and after going to the toilet, covering mouth/ turning away when coughing, applying/ replacing old plasters, disposing of used tissues, taking sick leave if ill etc.

| UNIT 4222- 264 THE PRINCIPLES OF INFECTION PREVENTION AND CONTROL | | | |

1. Explain employees’ roles and responsibilities in relation to the prevention and control of infection.

Implementation of patient care practices for infection control is the role of the nursing staff. Nurses are responsible for maintaining hygiene, consistent with hospital policies and good nursing practice on the ward and monitoring aseptic techniques, including hand-washing and use of isolation. It is also in their scope of practice to promptly report to the attending physician any evidence of infection in patients under the nurse’s care and initiating patient isolation and ordering culture specimens from any patient showing signs of a communicable disease, when the physician is not immediately available. Limiting patient exposure to infections from visitors, hospital staff, other patients, or equipment used for diagnosis or treatment and maintaining

Records should be regularly analysed so that problem areas can be identified and decisions about the development of new or updated injury prevention strategies can be made. These decisions can help to prevent future injuries and will contribute towards cost management for the organisation. Immediate response documentation and record keeping for an accident may include time and date of incident, how the incident occurred, who witnessed and reported the incident, injury description, details of first aid applied and who it was reported to. When infection control hazards and incidents are reported immediately, it helps ensure prompt investigation, assessment and long and short-term control development. This then becomes part of the critical management cycle of ensuring hazards and risks are

Handwashing – It is important to wash your hands as a lot of the germs and bacteria you face in your work role will be passed on by hands. Hands should be washed after sneezing or coughing, toileting, eating (Before and after), Handling food (Before and after to avoid cross contamination) and also when you come into contact with a child/object that may be at risking of passing on infections or illnesses.

This paragraph explains ways to prevent infections contracted from hospitals. The number one way to lower the spread of infections contracted through a hospital is correct sanitation customs. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), a federal government agency has come up with guidelines in order to safeguard against the expansion of infections and diseases for patients and the workers (Hedman, 2010). It is mandatory for administrators of hospitals to write a disclosure policy to protect the workers from infections like Hepatitis B and other infections and bad bacteria. Minimizing infections that the workers have can aid in stopping the spread of

As such, we must evaluate our practice on an ongoing basis to ensure that we are consistently following the best, evidenced-based practice guidelines in our interventions. (Makic, Rauen, Watson, & Poteet, 2014) With respect to reducing HAIs, this means following all hospital recommended infection control practices and utilizing all available resources to maintain the highest possible standards of infection control. New nurses may want to consider participating on an infection control committee as a means of keeping current on education and exploring new knowledge. Also, we should acknowledge and appreciate the help and support of assistive personnel, including often overlooked and underappreciated custodial staff, upon whom we rely to help keep the hospital environment clean. It takes the entire team to fight an invisible enemy. As primary patient advocates, nurses must motivate and inspire the other team members and daily remind ourselves to care for each patient with the kind of persistence and diligence we would expect from another RN, if we found ourselves on the other side of the nurse-patient

“5.6 million workers in the healthcare industry and related occupations are at risk of occupational exposure to bloodborne pathogens including human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), hepatitis B virus (HBV), hepatitis C virus (HCV), and others,” according to a hazard recognition of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) (OSHA, n.d.b., sec. Hazard Recognition). Policies exist to serve all members of an organization to help comply with regulatory and accreditation demands, while procedures serve the purpose of creating a layout of how a policy can be implemented (O’Donnell & Vogenberg, 2012). Both policies and procedures act as a foundation for an organization to be governed by in regards to their practice. For