As more and more patients receive health care at home, the importance of controlling infection there is becoming increasingly important. Since the house is an ever-changing environment, the challenges of maintaining a sanitary setting are wide-ranging, requiring a watchful eye as well as an educated approach. 

• Hand Hygiene Handwashing is a simple thing and it’s the best way to prevent infection and illness. Handwashing can prevent infection and illness from spreading from family member to family member and, sometimes throughout the community. And certainly, the hands of anyone providing aid to a patient should be washed both before and after contact, according to Pamela Hops, MD, a primary care physician at Beth Israel Medical Center’s Continuum Center for Health and Healing in New York City.
  

   

• Washing Hands with Soap and Water According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), when washing hands with soap and water, you should:
  
  • Wet your hands with clean running water and apply soap. Use warm water, if available.
  • Rub hands together to make a lather and scrub all surfaces. This includes front, back, between the fingers and under nails.
  • Continue rubbing hands for 15-20 seconds. To time yourself, imagine singing “Happy Birthday” twice through to a friend.
  • Rinse hands well under running water.
  • Dry your hands using a paper towel or air dryer. If possible, use our paper tower to turn off the faucet.

   

  Using an Alcohol-based Hand Sanitizer
  If soap and clean water are not available, use an alcohol-based hand rub to clean your hands, says the CDC. Alcohol-based hand rubs significantly reduce the number of germs on skin and are fast acting. Here’s what to do:

  • Apply product to the palm of one hand.
  • Rub hands together.
  • Rub the product over all surfaces of hands and fingers until hands are dry.

   

  Using Towels
  Sharing towels can result in contamination, notes the CDC, so it’s best to use paper towels. If they’re not available, use cloth towels once and launder them after use.

  Wearing Gloves
  Gloves should always be worn when handling any item containing bodily fluids of an infectious person,” says Constance Evans, RN, a nurse practicing in New York City, and hands should always be washed before and after gloving. She adds, Gloved hands should never touch any surface after handling items used by the patient because germs could be transmitted to the gloves from the patient, and touching anything else will contaminate it.

  The correct way to take off gloves is by removing them inside out. Remember, your hand is clean, but the outside of the glove is not,” reminds Evans.

  Adding Masks and Gowns
  Masks should be put on whenever there’s a risk of infection that can be spread by respiratory droplets, such as tuberculosis, meningitis, chicken pox, or whooping cough,” says Dr. Hops, “especially if someone will be within six feet of a patient.”
  

  When touching a patient’s skin or excretions, inserting catheters or other invasive devices, or administering wound care—including putting on or taking off dressings—gowns and masks, along with surgical gloves, should be worn for the safety of both the patient and the caregiver. “You should use all three kinds of cover-ups,” says Dr. Hops.

  Visitors
  Those coming into the house, besides the caregiver and nurse, should be carefully monitored. Anyone who might be infectious should be kept away, notes Evans. “It is imperative that persons with viral or bacterial infections stay away until they’re clear of infection,” she says. “This is also true for the caregiver: if she becomes ill, a substitute must be found to help the patient until the original caregiver recovers.”

  Signs of Infection
  Possible indications of infection, notes Dr. Hops, “would include redness of the patient’s skin, increasing pain, a rise in temperature or body heat, swelling or water retention, and pus-filled discharges.” If any of these symptoms occur, she recommends seeing a doctor immediately, following the physician’s treatment plan or servicing the patient’s wounds as indicated, and then returning to the doctor to make certain the infection is gone.

Article provided by Caring Today magazine and www.caringtoday.com