Ask a Teacher

Search



a lab techinicion acqiures infection from medical labouatory . gives your adives to that techinician about four main precaution to be adoped to prevent laboratory acquired infection
Safe working environment

Access to laboratory areas by people who do not work in them should be strictly limited. Members of the general public should get no further than the reception areas or waiting rooms.

In the interest of safety, floors should be slip resistant, seamless, be impermeable to liquids and resistant to most, if not all chemicals that are normally used in laboratories. The surfaces of walls and partitions should be smooth, impervious and easily cleaned. Windows should be sealable and fitted with blinds. Doors should be fire resistant and fitted with vision panels. Ceilings also need to be impermeable and should be coved to the walls. Openings in walls and ceilings for the entry of pipes etc. should be sealed around such pipes. Bench surfaces should be impervious to liquids, and not easily corroded or stained by chemicals. Electricity and gas supplies to the benches are needed, water and waste plumbing is optional. Each laboratory should have a hand basin and disposable paper towels provided.

Close-fitting doors are used and thereby resulting in a pressure gradient so that air always flows from clean to potentially contaminated areas ie. from corridors to laboratories and not in the opposite direction. The air extracted from contaminated areas may be ducted directly to the atmosphere. It is important that adequate lighting is provided.

The risk of nosocomial transmission of HIV, HBV, and other bloodborne pathogens can be minimized if health-care workers use the following general guidelines:

    Take care to prevent injuries when using needles, scalpels, and other sharp instruments or devices; when handling sharp instruments after procedures; when cleaning used instruments; and when disposing of used needles. Do not recap used needles by hand; do not remove used needles from disposable syringes by hand; and do not bend, break, or otherwise manipulate used needles by hand. Place used disposable syringes and needles, scalpel blades, and other sharp items in puncture-resistant containers for disposal. Locate the puncture-resistant containers as close to the use area as is practical.

    Use protective barriers to prevent exposure to blood, body fluids containing visible blood, and other fluids to which universal precautions apply. The type of protective barrier(s) should be appropriate for the procedure being performed and the type of exposure anticipated.

    Immediately and thoroughly wash hands and other skin surfaces that are contaminated with blood, body fluids containing visible blood, or other body fluids to which universal precautions apply.

 In addition, the following general guidelines apply:

    Use gloves for performing phlebotomy when the health-care worker has cuts, scratches, or other breaks in his/her skin.

    Use gloves in situations where the health-care worker judges that hand contamination with blood may occur, for example, when performing phlebotomy on an uncooperative patient.

    Use gloves for performing finger and/or heel sticks on infants and children.

    Use gloves when persons are receiving training in phlebotomy.


comments powered by Disqus