The general principles for environmental cleaning are to prevent the spread of infection and reduce the risk of transmission between patients via reusable medical devices and other equipment, environment correct linen and waste disposal. The purpose of a cleaning schedule is to show what has been cleaned, how it has been cleaned, who has done the cleaning also when it has been cleaned. The schedule proves that everything has been cleaned in order to maintain the ward and equipment clean and in a sanitary condition. Examples of this at ward level are the bed check cleaning list, commode cleaning schedule.
The correct management of environment of the environment minimise the spread of infection in the hospital whether it be patient to patient from patients to staff or staff to paitents. i must always be aware of hand hygiene, cleaning/disinfection, sterilization also monitoring or investigation of suspected spread of infection this will help the spread of infection. The national policy for colour coding equipment is in place as it ensures that items are not used in multiple areas which reduces cross infection such as cloths (reusable and disposable)mops,bucket,aprons and gloves should be colour coded.
; red for bathrooms ,washrooms,showers,toilets and basins. Blue – general areas such as wards. Green – kitchen areas Yellow – isolation areas. The three steps of decontamination process are – Cleaning which physically removes dirt, dust and grease and body fluids using hospital approved general purpose detergent for example mattress Disinfection is a process which reduces the number of micro-organisms to a level which are not harmful disinfection can be achieved either by heat or by chemical means.
Example of this chor cleaning commodes. Sterilisation is a process that destroys all micro-organisms. At H. D. F. T. sterilisation can only be achieved by steam sterilisation this is used for non-disposable equipment which are deemed to be high risk as they are used in close contact with break in the skin or mucas membrane.
Cleaning can be used in low risk items which are in contact with intact skin and items which are not in direct contact with the patient’s for example wash bowls and pillows which are covered by pillow cases. Disinfection can be used for medium risk items such as commodes which can carry micro-organisms such as c-diff which can be destroyed by normal cleaning but require disinfection by chor clean. Sterilisation as mentioned before is used for items which are deemed high risk. The role of personal protective equipment is to avoid recontamination of sterile areas it also protects me from infection or spreading infections.
The risk in dealing with specific types of contamination are becoming ill because I am dealing with illness that spread through droplets,airbourne or contaminated linen that are not disposed of in the correct manor such as red bags. Low risk areas are bathrooms,equipment,hoists,medium risk toilets, commodes infectious patients, high risk re-usable equipment that comes into contact with patients. When choosing agents in relation to the level of risk I must assess the risk the different agents that are used are low level risk I would use water and detergent, medium level risk disinfectants and for high risk it would be sterilization.
Equipment should always cleaned straight after use I would use chor-clean or a alcohol wipe always put a label on it to state that I have cleaned the equipment and the time I cleaned it, I always put equipment back from where I got it from making sure it is in a safe places not to cause harm such as tripping over. The different categories of waste are infectious and non-infectious waste such as linen if not disposed of in the correct manor it could spread infections which could lead to a outbreak disposal of p.p. e,blades and Sharpe instruments.
Safe disposal of waste such as linen into the correct bags Safe disposal of sharps, also the disposal of pads into orange bags, disposal of urine bottles and liners which go into the macerator straight after use,this will help stop the spread of infection. Storage of waste must be stored securely which will eliminate the spread of infection on the ward there is a storage room for waste which gets collected on a regular basis.
The legal responsibilities of waste are keeping records up to date which explain what type of waste it is, all staff members are trained how to store waste and correct procedures for separating waste, pack waste correctly . waste is regulated by the environment agency England and waste also the environmental act ,waste management licencing regulations also pollution prevention. To reduce the risk of a sharps injury is training and supervision on sharps,immiediate disposal of sharps ,not over filling sharps disposal containers.