3. 1 Describe procedures and systems relevant to the prevention and control of infection Standard Operation Procedures (S. O. Ps) At unit E, BMI, Standard Operation Procedures (S. O. P’s) can be found in each room, it covers the health and safety policy along with other legislations and regulatory body standards in accordance to the prevention and control of infection.
These policies include instructions of how to carry out ‘safe’ manual handing in each room, they also include departmental dress codes, health, safety and hygiene codes, the startup procedures for each room, corrective and preventive actions, cleaning procedures and pest control. Theses standards set up by the company will reduce the risk of infections spreading and reduce the risk of hazards occurring.
In a working environment that has lost of infectious substances, there are lots of procedures to ensure the risk of these spreading is reduced dramatically, if all policies and procedures are followed to the highest of standards then infections spreading should not occur and all staff will be able to work in a clean and safe environment Personal Protective Equipment One important S. O. P procedures involves personal protective equipment to eliminate the possibility of cross contamination.
Employees working in each room are clearly identified according to the task in which they are conducting. For example, in what is classed as the “dirty room”, primary sterilisation area you must wear green scrubs, gloves, eye protection and plastic disposable aprons. However for the clean room, you must wear blue scrubs and white clogs and a hair net. All employees are expected to change their attire before entering another area, the attire worn must be that of the room in which they are entering.
Personal Hygiene You must at all times be clean, you must ensure that your hands are washed thoroughly and most importantly after visiting the toilet, before and after handling and eating food, after completing each task before moving onto another, after coughing, blowing your nose, etc, after handling waste or touching anything dirty, after any activity, such as smoking, hair brushing, scratching, etc and before and after putting on and removing gloves. Cleaning
Your work area must be clean and tidy at all times, you must ensure that all spillages, etc are cleaned immediately, you must ensure that waste bags are not over filled and always make sure that you use the correct waste disposal and correct colour bags to reduce any risk of cross contamination. Recording / Checking You must thoroughly check your work, your personal hygiene and cleanliness of your area of work on a regular basis, after each task has been completed. You must ensure that the correct PPE is worn, checked and used.
If upon these checks you find that your work or that of another employee is a potential risk of infection, it must be recorded and reported immediately. To eliminate any infection the whole process of sterilisation must be completed again. Employers must check and check again all their employees work and area of work. You must also ensure that every task you have conducted is recording accordingly and correctly. Above essay 500 words (not including question) Information from BMI Health, Safety and Environment Policy Statement SOP’s.
Section Two: Task 2 Understanding Systems and Procedures 3. 2 Explain the potential impact of an outbreak of infection on the individual and the organisation. What is an Infection? In order to understand the impact an infection has, you must first understand what an infection is, there are many different types of infections but they all operate on the same principles. An infection is a presence and multiplication of pathogenic micro organisms in the tissue of a host, which could be human, animal, etc.the response to this invasion varies from host to host.
However the obvious signs of infection include fever, sweating, pain and inflammation. These symptoms may appear immediately or over a space of time. Infections can be in one area of the body, or in fact affect the whole body. Exposure and Contamination Should an outbreak of infection occur at Unit E BMI, its potential impact could be detrimental to the workforce and the company.
For example, should an outbreak of Norovirus occur, if not managed and controlled, it would spread throughout the workforce and environment, affecting several individuals, those individuals would be poorly and unable to work for a minimum of 48 hours. It could also lead to the contamination of work areas and work conducted resulting in the virus being able to contaminate further individuals and items of work, once contamination of work happens it could then spread into the hospitals (via the sterilised operation utensils) affecting doctors, nurses, patients and surgeons.
It could then spread throughout the hospital, thriving on attacking the young, old and ill, leading to other potential problems for each individual with possible fatal consequences. What is Norovirus? As ive just referred to a significant viruses above, it is important that I explain exactly what Norovirus is. Norovirus is probably the most common cause of gastroenteritis. It is more common during winter, however it can occur anytime of year. Symptoms usually last for 24 to 48 hours and include projectile vomiting, diarrhoea, abdominal cramps, fever, headache and muscle aches.
Symptoms normally present themselves within 12 hours to 48 hours of exposure. People normally make a full recovery although dehydration mat be a problem for higher risk groups. As with all micro organisms / infections, different strands of the infection may occur at each outbreak, each strand affecting its victim in different ways, in recent years there have been a number of deaths. With each new strand, there is also a potential risk of medicines used to help combat it not being as effective as once was to tackle the infection.
How is Norovirus Spread? Norovirus is very infectious, only 10 to 100 viral particles are needed to cause illness. It multiplies in the body. It is also airbourne, it can spread from one person to the next. It can also spread onto surfaces, such as simply touching a handrail, telephone, light switch. Worryingly it can survive on surfaces for several weeks. Above essay 465 words (not including question) Information from the infection control handbook.