Essential Steps to Safe, Clean Care

Essential Steps AIM: Designed as a framework to support local organisations providing and commissioning health and social care services outside the acute hospital setting Use best practice and national guidance to prevent and manage the spread of infection and improve patient / client and service user safety

Essential Steps Can be used: On an organisation-wide basis By individual departments and teams in the community setting –Primary care trusts –Mental health trusts –Learning disability organisations –Independent healthcare –Care homes –Hospices –General practices –Ambulance services

Essential Steps Developed to improve cleanliness and safety of care in: Preventing spread of infection Urinary catheter care Enteral feeding

Core Campaign Posters

Essential Steps Posters Aimed at front-line staff and visitors to health and social care settings Reinforce key safety messages Place in high-risk areas Provide information on: –Risk elements –Safety action points

Essential Steps – Preventing the spread of infection Personal Protective equipment Staff should wear personal protective equipment (PPE) if at risk of exposure to blood and bodily fluids –This includes gloves, aprons, masks and goggles/visors –Gloves and aprons should be used as single-use items

Protective clothing

Gloves Gloves should always be worn when there is a risk of exposure to: –blood –body fluids hazardous substances –non-intact skin –mucous membranes –handling contaminated items or surfaces.

Use of GLOVES Gloves are the most common type of PPE used within healthcare settings Gloves protect your hands from –contamination with organic matter and micro-organisms –chemicals that could adversely affect your skin Gloves reduce the risk of cross-infection by preventing the transfer of organisms from you to patients, and from patients to you

Selection of GLOVES Glove selection can only be made after a full and informed risk assessment Understand potential hazards before making glove choice Be aware of the possibility of NRL allergy, and document cases NRL (or an acceptable alternative) must be worn for actual or potential contact with blood, or blood-stained body fluids Make sure gloves fit correctly Always use non-powdered gloves Never use polythene (plastic) gloves for clinical tasks

Discarding GLOVES Gloves are single-use items, you should treat them as clinical waste Put on gloves immediately before an episode of patient contact or treatment, and remove gloves as soon as the activity is completed Never wash gloved hands Dispose of decontaminated gloves immediately Decontaminate hands after removing gloves The re-use of gloves has legal implications

Do GLOVES leak? Do not take the integrity of gloves for granted – always decontaminate hands after glove use Evidence suggests gloves can leak when they appear undamaged Revised standards require gloves to perform to the same standard Hands are not necessarily clean because gloves have been worn Verify glove barrier properties with manufacturers Hands may also become contaminated during glove removal Double gloving should be considered for exposure prone procedures, or for procedures where there is a risk of glove puncture

Essential Steps – Preventing the spread of infection Hand Hygiene Staff should always clean their hands before and after each care activity Staff should use correct hand hygiene procedure

Essential Steps – Preventing the spread of infection A clean and safe (aseptic/aseptic non-touch) technique as appropriate Sterile equipment should be used Staff should always use aprons and gloves for invasive devices and wound care

Essential Steps – Preventing the spread of infection Safe disposal of sharps A sharps container should be available at the point of use Whoever uses the sharp must dispose of it themselves Staff should not remove the needle from the syringe before disposal into the sharps bin Staff should never re-sheath needles Staff should not pass sharps from hand to hand Staff should not overfill sharps containers

Management of sharps

Sharps Waste needles, syringes, blades Place directly into an approved sharps container. Label container with source. Store in locked, secure area prior to collection. Sharps must be destroyed by incineration. Do not place inside clinical waste bag.