With so many sick people in and out of hospitals, they’ve become a prime location for infection to spread. Due to this, healthcare workers must fight a never-ending battle to keep these places clean and sanitary. If it weren’t for this, healthcare centers would quickly become extremely dangerous. Today, we’ll explore what infection control is and why it’s so important.
What is infection control?
Infection control is the process of neutralizing, preventing, or containing infection. Any mass gathering of sick individuals is perfect for infection to spread quickly, making infection control a high priority and massive challenge. In healthcare, entire teams are dedicated to keeping infection under control because with all things considered, contaminated treatment can be far worse than no treatment.
Why it matters:
If infection control guidelines were ignored, you’d likely return from a doctor’s visit far sicker than when you walked in! The doctor’s office would become a disgusting cesspool of viruses and bacteria, whisking through the air and slathered on every surface, eager to infect a new victim. Think about it, every surface in the entire clinic, including door handles, chairs, clipboards, pens, keyboards, magazines, stethoscopes, and more could be contaminated.
Disease would run rampant and spread like wildfire. This would be a catastrophe and compromise the entire healthcare system. Every procedure from simple checkups to heart surgery would have massive potential for deadly disease to spread. Nurses would be treating patients with contaminated equipment and unwashed hands. Flu season would run off the rails as cases rise exponentially and we enter a healthcare emergency.
In short, it would be a horrific nightmare of epic proportions.
Methods of infection control:
Hand Washing:
Hand washing is among the most fundamental of control methods. This simple task is extremely effective at killing both bacteria and viruses. Providers are trained to wash before/after touching a patient, after contacting anything infectious and after glove removal. Hands should be scrubbed with soap and water for at least 15-30 seconds to ensure they’ve been properly sanitized.
Sanitizing:
Hands aren’t the only thing that needs to be cleaned. Disinfecting frequently used surfaces is a daily task for healthcare workers. By the time a sick patient checks into a clinic, they’ve already infected the doorhandle, a pen, a clipboard and a chair. These are all things that now need to be sanitized in a timely manner. There’s not much of a point in washing hands if the surfaces we consistently touch are also unsanitary.
Sterilizing:
Sanitizing is great, but sometimes it just isn’t enough. Sometimes things must be sterilized. This can be done with a variety of methods but is mostly done via high heat or chemical decontamination. This destroys all viruses, bacteria or organic residue and is the highest standard of cleanliness in healthcare. Most medical tools need to be sterilized before they can be used to treat a patient.
PPE:
PPE stands for personal protective equipment. The entire point of it is to place a physical barrier between the disease and the individual. This allows doctors and nurses to work directly with sick patients at a much lower risk of being infected. Think of it as a medical suit of armor; it’s what healthcare workers wear to battle. Examples of personal protective equipment include masks, gloves, eye protection, isolation gowns, hairnets and more.
Safe Sharps:
Sharps can be a deadly hazard. Most people don’t like shots, but once a needle has been used, it can be much meaner than a little pinch. With the CDC recording approximately 385,000 incidents per year, they’ve become a pesky way for bloodborne diseases such as HIV and Hepatitis to spread. An accidental needlestick can quickly become a dire emergency. Slow, steady handling and proper disposal in a sharp’s container can help prevent unexpected sticks.
Cough Etiquette:
Along with masks, covering your cough or sneeze is vital to keeping infection out of the air. During a sneeze, infected droplets can launch from the nostrils at lightning-fast speeds, spraying a contagious cloud across the room. Simply coughing or sneezing into your elbow catches the danger at its source (and it’s also just good manners).
Overall, infection control is an invaluable part of healthcare. It allows workers to treat patients safely, while creating an environment with much less infection risk for the public. Without it, we would be unable to enjoy the amazing benefits modern healthcare has to offer.
If you find the process of infection control interesting, then a career in healthcare may be for you! At Idaho Medical Academy, we offer a variety of healthcare courses, which include medical assisting, phlebotomy, IV therapy, medical coding and pharmacy technician training. Don’t hesitate to reach out to us or get signed up for one of our top-of-the line courses today
