Report on Health and Safety: Infection Prevention for Care Staff

This report provides an overview of infection prevention strategies within healthcare and care settings, emphasizing the shared responsibility of both employers and employees in maintaining a safe and healthy environment. It highlights the importance of employers providing adequate resources such as personal protective equipment and infection control education, as well as maintaining a clean environment. Simultaneously, it outlines the responsibilities of healthcare employees, including doctors and nurses, in adhering to safety measures, using sterilized equipment, and ensuring the cleanliness of clinical areas. The report references relevant literature to support its claims and underscores the necessity of a comprehensive approach to infection control to protect both healthcare workers and patients.

Health and Safety in Care Settings

Infection prevention:
 Infection prevention fends off the spread of infection in healthcare settings. A
new vision can be improved on for the initial expansion in infection prevention
campaigns.
 The nursing homes for adults aim to improve occupational health and safety for all
employees. Care homes need to have their staff specialized and to train them with the
best hygienic practices (Michaels and Wagner, 2020).
 It is the responsibility of both employer and employees to prevent infection within
healthcare settings.

Source: The infection prevention and control, 2022

Employer Responsibilities:
 For maintaining infection prevention, employers must adopt specific
strategies such as availability of Personal protective equipment for all medical staff.
 This will help the concerned employer in taking measures for the working
environment of the employees.
 Disinfecting and keeping hospital area and surfaces clean is also an important
measure, where employers need to implement new strategies. Employers should be
made aware of the proper usage of techniques within patients’ treatment for
maintaining clean environment (Fix and et.al., 2018).
 Providing infection control education is essential to create awareness among
medical staff and other employees.

Source: Effective hand hygiene requires soap and water, 2022

Employee Responsibilities –
 The employees at nursing homes such as doctors, medical staff and nurses who are handling
patient’s treatments must abide by the best safety measures to reduce infection spread.
• Clinical nurses, doctors and care givers must professionally indulge in providing the care
benefits and safety measures to the patients.
• There has to be a significant compliance done towards the usage of sterilized medical
equipment and techniques while performing surgeries (Cometto amd et.al., 2018).
• The employees also have the responsibility of using personal protective equipment within the
care setting.
• Clinical nurses and doctors must assure that operation theaters and clinical area are cleaned,
and sanitized in timely manner for the proper adoption of infection prevention measures.

Source: What is the role of infection control nurses, 2020

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
 Michaels, D. and Wagner, G. R., 2020. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and worker
safety during the COVID-19 pandemic. Jama. 324(14). pp.1389-1390.
 Fix, G.M . and et.al., 2018. Patient‐centred care is a way of doing things: How healthcare employees
conceptualize patient‐centred care. Health Expectations. 21(1). pp.300-307.
 Cometto, G amd et.al., 2018. Health policy and system support to optimise community health worker
programmes: an abridged WHO guideline. The Lancet Global Health. 6(12). pp.e1397-e1404.