Unit 6 task 4 -An example of the chain of infection.

the procedure that you must go through with care, the first thing is after you have spotted the spill is to put a sign out while you go to gather the equipment you need to safely remove the hazard. When you have collected all the correct equipment that you need, put on the protective gloves and apron, to make sure that when you are dealing with the spill you don’t get it on your clothes and spread the germs. Then place paper towels over the spill to absorb it and don’t spread it further over the infected area, make sure you wipe up all of the spill and place the paper towels into the clinical waste bag this is so that they get disposed of correctly and don’t go to a household landfill as it needs to be incinerated to burn any possible germs. When this is done you spray the disinfectant on the area that was exposed to infection and wipe up. Make sure if it is on a surface none of the disinfectant pools up and drips down onto the floor as the germs may spread. When this is done wipe up the disinfectant with paper towels and then expose of these as well into the waste bag, now all the area is cleaned and disinfected to get rid of potential infection. Remove the gloves first as if you removed the apron first you would end up touching the back of your clothes where you aren’t protected by the apron and the germs would spread to your clothes/uniform, so you must remove the gloves first by the wrist ie. If you were right handed you would take off the gloves on your left hand by your wrist. Then roll down the glove to your fingers making sure you are only holding the bottom of the glove by your fingers so not to spread more germs onto your now exposed hand. Then pull off by your right hand and while holding the glove with your right hand use your left hand in the same process to take off your right hand glove. You are doing it in this process to try not to touch the gloves which have been in direct contact to possible infection. When the glove is removed you should be holding the gloves on the part that was touching your skin, and both gloves should be together rolled inside one another. Then you may dispose of them into the clinical waste bag and now remove your apron that is protecting your uniform/clothes. When everything is disposed of, take the waste bag to a clinical waste bin. If you were disposing of sharp objects, you need to dispose of it in a sharps bin which is a yellow bin with a red lid. After you have completed all of this depending on your situation ie. If you don’t have a close area near the infected area that has a sink with hot water, you would use hand sanitizer to take any germs away left on your skin till you get to an area where you can clean your hands properly. The reason why you need to do all this correctly and efficiently is because you need to remove and stop the chain of infection before is spreads to a host ie. A patient walking down the corridor at a hospital that doesn’t see the spillage so isn’t aware to the possible infection although it could be a potential hazard too as they could slip and fall even if it wasn’t a body fluid. The process of infection can be shown as a chain as below:                                                                                                                            Transmission                Source                                (spread)                                           Host To break a link in the chain to stop the risk of infection spreading to others, you must find the source of infection and remove the risk of infection by using standard precautions i.e. Safe handling of blood and body fluid spillages, cleaning and decontamination of equipment, and Sharps safety.