Unit ICO1 The principles of infection prevention and control
Outcome 1 Understand roles and responsibilities in the prevention and control of infections
1.The main roles and responsibilities of the employee in relation to prevention and control of infection are as follows:
To use protective clothing when needed to stop cross contamination. This includes gloves, aprons and masks.
To wash hands regularly and effectively. This needs to be done after handling food, personal care, toileting etc.
To ensure your health doesn’t pose a risk to others. This can be if you have been vomiting, cold symptoms etc. To avoid cross contamination.
To ensure your hygiene is good at all times as not to pose a risk to others by passing on germs and
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It could be fatal resulting in death.
Outcome 4 Understand the importance of risk assessment in relation to the prevention and control of infections
1.Risk is a situation, action or event that may cause harm or damage to an individual or to yourself. Risk of infection can be not hand washing, not cleaning equipment after use and not disposing of clinical waste safely and properly as not to cause cross contamination.
2.Infections are unavoidable in the care home as there are so many risks. Potential risks can include the poor hygiene of a resident. This can be caused by them refusing to wash or bathe. Food poisoning is a risk if the kitchen and food surface aren’t kept clean at all times. Another potential risk is not cleaning equipment after use, as this can cross contaminate others causing harm to them. You must also make sure you dispose of clinical waste in the correct way, in the correct bins and tie bags up straight away as this can lead to a risk of infection.
3. Five steps to risk assessment can be followed to ensure that your risk assessment is carried out correctly, these steps are as follows:
Identify the hazards - Hazards can be identified by using a number of different techniques. This can include walking around the workplace, asking employees and asking family members.
Who might be harmed and how? - Once hazards have been identified you need to understand who will be harmed and how. This could be the resident themselves, the staff or visitors.
In addition, risk assessments should be undertaken for example; each person who has a catheter; PEG feed; pressure sore; or other factor which makes them more susceptible to the risk of infection. Ultimately anyone within the home who can cause infection are subject to risk assessment under the COSHH Regulations and Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulation 1992. It is important that infected residents are isolated and infected staff excluded from work, until 48 hours after the symptoms have settled. Management of cases should be planned following a risk assessment, which should consider continence, personal hygiene, overall health, likelihood of physical contact with other residents or their food, the facilities available and the vulnerability of other residents. The local HPU can advise on this process. Infected residents should, if possible, have sole use of a designated toilet or commode as long as their symptoms persist. In the case of a likely norovirus infection, they should keep a designated toilet facility for 48 hours after their symptoms have settled.
Good health and safety of extremely important to reduce the risk of cross infection and
prevent ingestion germs its important for children to wash their hands frequently and the toys to be
Health care acquired infection (HCAI) exerts a massive impact on the health care services delivery and improvement of its quality. It has been reported among leading culprits of prolonged admission, increased mortality, long-term disability and complications, emergence of multidrug resistant organism (MDRO), and they are costing healthcare services a great deal of money.(1, 2) At a given time, occurrence of HCAI is 15.5 per 100 patients in developing countries and 5 to 12 per 100 patients in developed countries. It is estimated that approximately 1 out of every 20 hospitalized patients will contract an HCAI.(3) In a summery and updating reviews done in 2014 by WHO concluded that more than a quarter of the MERS-cov infections have been
Regular handwashing, particularly before and after certain activities, is one of the best ways to remove germs, avoid getting sick, and prevent the spread of germs to others. It's quick, it's simple, and it can keep us all from getting sick. Handwashing is a win for everyone, except the
ill patients are at risk of getting further diseased by a number of hospital infections. Patients
to avoid contact with the blood or body fluids of infected persons. This includes avoiding travel to areas
This technique is used to help prevent the spread of infections and pathogens. Some examples of when health care professionals use this are when handling surgery equipment, vaginal deliveries, performing dialysis, inserting a chest tube and inserting central Iv. When working in the pharmacy you always want to make sure you have clean hands. They need to be cleaned with warm water and soap for at least 15 seconds. Another example would be is to make sure when your sneezing and coughing you always cover your mouth. Also if you're sick try to stay away from others or just stay home.
Hand hygiene is a big part in infection control. Considered the most important infection prevention. A lot of germs and infections are mainly cause by direct contact. Everyone and healthcare facilities should wash their hands at all times. The most important purpose of hand washing is that it helps remove dirt and reduce the amount of bacteria on your hands.
Infection prevention and control practices should be included in job descriptions, as it enables staff to be aware from the very moment of starting work the company’s expectations of them. This prompts them to take on board policies and procedures in relation to infection control and the importance of it in creating a safe environment. Any failing of the staff can then be brought to focus from within the job description, as this requires a signature from them in agreement that they understand what is outlaid in their job description.
For example we have to wash our hands before preparing food and handling or even eating. Then make sure wash your hands after visiting the toilet, before and after every contact of patients. Then we have to do this because by doing this it will protect our skin from pathogens. If we don’t look after it will develop into a dry skin, and also our skin will cracks. So this can lead pathogen to have more routes in our skin. So it is always important after washing our hands keep our hand moisturized.
Standard precautions also known as universal precautions are a set of basic infection prevention practices intended to avoid transmission of infectious diseases from one person to another. Since we do not often know exactly if a person has an infectious disease, standard precautions are applied to every individual at all time to assure that the spread of disease does not occur, since we do not often know exactly if a person has an infectious disease or not. In addition, health care workers should use extra protective barriers such as masks, gloves, eye protection (goggle), personal protective equipment (PPE) gown, and power air purifying respirators (PAPRs) or N95 respirators depending on the patient illness and expected degree of contact
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.
Although the infection prevention and control plan system for Nightingale Community Hospital has an effective framework for screening patient from infection some weaknesses are evident. For instance, the hospital does not have a framework for maintaining an ongoing program designed to prevent and control infections. According the commission’s standards on infection prevention and control plan, the infection control and prevention program must include documentation that Hospital has considered, selected, and implemented nationally recognized infection control guidelines.
1) Explain employees’ roles and responsibilities in relation to the prevention and Control of infection.