Need to know
For #TeamEEAST Last updated: 18 May 2024 at 12:32
The Infection Prevention and Control (IP&C) Team would like to raise awareness in the Trust that this week has been International infection prevention week.
Infection Prevention and Control (IP&C) is traditionally about reducing the risk of nosocomial or healthcare associated infections (HCAI). Over the last couple years, the importance of infection control in non-clinical workplaces also became increasingly integral to everyday life. IP&C is an essential part of healthcare and addresses factors related to the spread of infections. It also includes the prevention of infection by following the standard precautions e.g. hand hygiene, decontamination, personal protective equipment etc. Whether you are a clinically trained member of staff, or not, it is important that we all play our part in ensuring high infection prevention standards. Please CLICK HERE to see a more detailed and interactive document.
The IPC Team is responsible for providing expert and up to date advice to the Trust in relation to implementing infection prevention safety to all staff and patients. This involves producing policies, guidance, processes and monitoring tools that align to national and Trust standards as well as legal requirements. Developing safe systems of work and introducing solutions to reduce infection risk is integral in our agenda.
As part of international infection prevention week the team were out raising further awareness and having discussions with staff around hand hygiene and bare below elbows.
A real eye opener for many people is how thoroughly hands must be washed to remove contamination. Poor hand hygiene can result in significant infection risk, so we were out using a light box to demonstrate the importance of thorough hand hygiene.
The pictures below show Andrea, a member of the Make Ready Team at Waveney, who kindly assisted by using the light box during our demonstration. The IPC team will continue to visit sites and raise awareness of the importance of hand hygiene, so please get involved if you see us on a station.
The purpose of this demonstration was to show how thoroughly hand gel must be applied to get full coverage and then how thoroughly hands must be washed to remove contamination. It often takes people 2 or more attempts at this. Thank you Andrea for your participation.
Audits are carried out as a part of the quality improvement (QI) cycle that involves measurement of the effectiveness of healthcare against a set of agreed and proven standards for high quality. This enables the Trust to bring our practice in line with these standards so as to improve the quality of care and health outcomes. Upholding these standards protects staff, patients and the wider public including our friends and families.
The IPC Team audit the following areas:
The topics and information I can provide for infection control in extensive, so this article was just a short overview of the team and some of what we do. I have added links below that take you to external infection control resources and also to our Trust IP&C documentation. There is also a link to a sway document which has a lot more detail about some of the IP&C topics.
International Infection Prevention Week | IPS
Infection Prevention & Control at EEAST - Sway document
http://east24/Clinical/infection-prevention-and-control.htm
https://ntk.eastamb.nhs.uk/news/covid-19-homepage.htm
Friday 21st October 2022