Prevention and Control of Infection

| Describe the organisational security procedures for tools, equipment and personal belongings in relation to site, workplace, company and operative.

It is our responsibility as employees to take precautionary measures to prevent and control the spread of infection in the workplace. This involves working safely to protect myself, other staff, visitors and individuals from infections.

The use of Personal Protection Equipment (PPE), like plastic aprons, gloves footwear when handling contaminated items, including items contaminated with body fluids, and disposing of waste,

1.1 We should always check equipment which we are going to use if it is safe and working properly, we should wear PPE every time we are undertaking any task, ensure that we are trained to do the task, we should keep the working place safe and clean. When we are about to take measurement from an person we need to make sure that the person know exactly what we are going to do and asking permission for the task we are about to do. Recording the task in the chart and keep it confidential to protect personal information during the course of our work.

The employee has to wear PPE at all times when carrying out any personal care to help prevent any cross infection and to help prevent any.

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

You should wear the correct PPE for the job i.e LEV when working in a closed environment. Read all hazard boards.

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

5.5 The employees are responsible for wearing PPE provided and disposing of it in an appropriate manner. in our company the employees are also responsible for re-ordering

– collective protective measures– personal protective equipment (PPE)– respiratory protective equipment (RPE)– local exhaust ventilation (LEV).

These regulations seeks to ensure that where the risks cannot be controlled by other means, Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) is correctly selected and used.

The purpose of PPE is to reduce employee exposure to hazards when engineering and administrative controls

*take precautions against the risks caused by flammable or explosive hazards, electrical equipment, noise and radiation

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”.

In a 2011 survey released by Kimberly-Clark Professional, 89 percent of safety professionals reported they observed employees not donning PPE when they should have been and 29 percent claimed that this has happened on multiple occasions. Seeing that PPE is used for health care provider and patient safety, this survey examined the reasons for high levels of noncompliance. For those who observed PPE noncompliance in the workplace, 69 percent said the chief cause was workers thinking that PPE wasn't necessary. This reason was also followed by PPE being uncomfortable, a poor fit, too hot, and not available near work task. When it comes to compliance with PPE protocols, according to Kelly M. Pyrek studies showed that eye protection was found to