Disease Prevention and Control: A Reablement Worker's Report

This report examines disease prevention and control within the context of Coral Lodge, a rehabilitation center for male patients with persistent mental health disorders. As a reablement worker, the author emphasizes the importance of educating fellow workers on self-management and self-hygiene to prevent and control infections. The report highlights the challenges of working with individuals with psychotic disorders and stresses the need for effective communication, hand hygiene, environmental cleanliness, and the proper use of personal protective equipment. It details the implementation of standard precautions and the use of educational materials to ensure that all staff members understand and adhere to disease prevention protocols. The report references key guidelines and principles, emphasizing the crucial role of healthcare workers in maintaining a safe and healthy environment for both themselves and the patients.

Running head: DISEASE PREVENTION AND CONTROL 1
Support to others Workers to Ensure Prevention and Control of Infections
Student’s name
Professor’s name
Institution Affiliation
Date

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Coral Lodge is a rehabilitation center which was mainly established for male patients. It
is a recovery unit for male adults in need of rehabilitation services due to persistent mental health
disorders. As a support worker, it is my role to educate on other workers on the principles of self-
management and self-hygiene within the workplace so that to help in controlling and prevention
of infection both to themselves and to patients (Billings et al, 2019).
Workers of a rehabilitation center such as coral lodge hospital require much knowledge
on how to prevent and control diseases because their responsibilities are tiresome. Working or
taking care of people with different psychotic disorders, mainly in topics of controlling infections
is such a stressful job, and it requires to sober and normally active full time. I have learnt that
the knowledge of diseases prevention and control to the healthcare team is essential for it helps
the health workers to perform their duties effectively. Good working team will enable them to
build self-esteem and dignity, thus making them to deliver quality services for more natural
recovery and to prevent further contact and spread of diseases.
As a support worker, I base on theories to be able to explain and give the best to my
fellow workmate, to encourage because just explaining to a person with psychotic disorder about
the relevance or hygiene and the importance of some of the preventative vaccines is not an easy
job. Some of the reablement workers expose much of aggressiveness towards their work and
have the unwillingness to be associated with the mentally challenged group of people. To handle
this, I approach my workmate with a lot of openness and in an amicable manner (Løyland,
Wilmont, Hessels & Larson, 2016).
Some of the guidance and principles that I ensured other healthcare workers understand
concerning the general prevention and control of diseases includes; achieving maximum hand

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hygiene, ensuring and maintenance of the clinical setting, use of protective personal equipment,
excellent communication between other health care workers, visitors and patients, safe disposal
handling of sharps and clinical waste and proper usage of indwelling devices (World Health
Organization, 2016).
Maintenance of hand hygiene is one of the crucial activities towards controlling the
spread of diseases like cholera and typhoid was one of my main standard precautions to all the
workers. Hands hygiene involves keeping nails short, polish free and clean, avoid abrasive
devices like watches and jewelry with ridges.
The dirty environment contributes to the high rate of an infection outbreak. I revised with
other healthcare workers and asked them to employ the basics of cleaning the environment and
set examples to the patients through the removal of contaminants such as dust, organic matter
like stool and blood and harmful microorganisms (Meyers, 2017).
I ensured that the nurses understand that enhancing excellent communication between
healthcare providers, visitors, and patients is important during the prevention of disease
transmission because everyone will be willing to listen to each other. I also made it clear that
proper disposal of sharps and clinical waste, and appropriate usage of the indwelling devices will
promote the prevention and control of the infections. To ensure all the precautions and guidelines
are applied to the best way possible, I issued other workers with leaflets and notices so that they
can use them to educate the patients of Coral lodge concerning disease prevention and control
(Sohlberg & Mateer, 2017).

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References
Billings, C., Bernard, H., Caffery, L., Dolan, S. A., Donaldson, J., Kalp, E., & Mueller, A.
(2019). Advancing the profession: An updated future-oriented competency model for
professional development in infection prevention and control. American journal of
infection control, 47(6), 602-614.
Løyland, B., Wilmont, S., Hessels, A. J., & Larson, E. (2016). Staff knowledge, awareness,
perceptions, and beliefs about infection prevention in pediatric long-term care facilities.
Nursing research, 65(2), 132.
Meyers, G. L. (2017). Building educational practice and culture in infection prevention and
control: A design-based research study (Doctoral dissertation, University of Calgary).
Sohlberg, M. M., & Mateer, C. A. (2017). Cognitive rehabilitation: An integrative
neuropsychological approach. Guilford Publications.
World Health Organization. (2016). Guidelines on core components of infection prevention and
control programmes at the national and acute health care facility level. World Health
Organization.