Suppose you receive a call that an employee has been injured when your facility's stairs collapse. 911 is invoked and the caller tells that some of your fellow employees are careful about the victims. As a supervisor, you decided to respond to that scene.
We arrive just as firemen and ambulances take care of the victims. These rescuers are doing their jobs well - the victims are stable and wrapped for transport to the hospital.
As far as you are watching you can not notice that firefighters and emergency personnel are wearing medical gloves and goggles. When the personnel of Emergency Medical Service (EMS) leaves that area, we will approach employees who appreciate that effort. Almost immediately you will notice a very terrible sight. Both rescuers have quite big blood stains in their clothes, and even more angry people use paper towels to wipe their blood out of their hands. It is clear that these employees do not do anything to protect themselves from the transmission of diseases but are contaminated with the blood of the victims.
Wearing PPE (personal protective equipment) is an important part for professional rescuers. apparatus. They know that protecting themselves from bloodborne pathogens is just as important as care for victims in some way. But what about your people? Do they know the risks associated with not wearing protective equipment?
If your company provides first aid kits for employees, or employees need to respond to emergency situations, access to protective equipment and training of blood borne pathogens is required.
Evaluating the risk of work exposure - I have recently been asked to evaluate the exposure risks of tractor drivers, body shop technicians, automobile mechanics. These people lack training in bloodborne pathogens.
Workers of towing vehicles wear heavy leather work gloves and pick up daily bleached windshields or wrap contaminated airbags around the steering column. Engineers of the body shop pull out contaminated places from broken vehicles and sit at break or lunch. Mechanics tend to cut knuckle and forehead when repairing a vehicle. They also share tools with fellow employees. The tool is contaminated with blood from the last injury.
I know you are not in the car repair business. The above example is intended to make you think about the risk of exposure to potentially dangerous bodily fluids. Do you have the first responder team assigned to respond to emergencies? Is the first aid kit available to employees? Does the employee share equipment and tools that may be contaminated? After accidents and injuries, who is responsible for cleaning body fluids?
Without proper communication policy and training to prevent the transmission of disease, employees are subject to the same risks faced by emergency medical personnel and emergency personnel while undergoing emergency medical care.
So, what can you do to reduce the risk of exposure? Let's start with the definition of the effects of bloodborne pathogens and their exposure to employees and employers.
Pollution prevention guidelines - Blood-borne pathogenic bacteria are pathogenic microorganisms that are transmitted through human blood and cause disease in humans. But are not limited to, hepatitis B and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).
Many people (including myself) regain the ideas of high school and health classes, such as microorganisms, immunodeficiency diseases and pathogens. Most of us are the last place in the world I want to visit again. So, before we go further, I think that it can be said in my language. There are many junks and we can become very sick.
We should always keep it and need to be very careful not to be contaminated. I have taught CPR and emergency drills for over 25 years, but I often ask unknown people if I will breathe rescue. I respond without hesitation: If I find that someone is not breathing in an unresponsive manner, I immediately begin to press chest compressions of the survivors, but how to say mouth without breathing barriers there is no.
Emergency responders know the risks associated with contact with bloodborne pathogens and know how to protect themselves. Unfortunately, there are too many people in the workplace, Samaritans on the streets rarely take the necessary precautions. After an emergency that was too late, I knew that they were exposed to body fluids.
Employees - There are some simple rules in the face of the possibility of exposure to bloodborne pathogens and their body fluids. This information is presented as guidelines for both employees and employers. The American Heart Association calls it "to make a bill and to know how to act".
Protection - Protect yourself from blood and blood-containing substances. This includes using respiratory barriers when wearing protective equipment such as gloves and goggles and performing CPR. If you find yourself without a protective device, please consider your choices.
ACT - If you find out that you have contacted other people's blood or other body fluids, please act quickly and safely. Rinse immediately with hot soapy water for 1 minute before rinsing off. If your eyes are dirty please rinse with clean water for about 5 minutes. If water wash is not available at the site, please let someone supply water. Firefighters and emergency personnel can help you if they are still on site.
Clean - After an emergency, clean the areas contaminated with blood and body fluid, especially at stores and offices. Wear protective gear. Clean the area with a solution of 1 part of Clorox and 8 parts of water. Rinse the area thoroughly and leave the solution for at least 3 minutes. Be especially careful when wiping the area if you handle broken glass, wood or metal fragments. Place all dirty items including dirty cleaning materials in a plastic bag and take it back to the trash box as soon as work is finished. If you have an injection device (such as a needle), please give it to a doctor or a firefighter before you leave the hospital. Otherwise, please put it in the trash can.
Remark - Please report the case to your boss or Human Resources department immediately. Ask for a date copy of the report (even handwritten only).
Employee Responsibility Employers are responsible for protecting employees against exposure to blood borne pathogens. Details of this responsibility are as follows.
Personal Protective Equipment - Employees at risk of being exposed to bloodborne pathogens must have the necessary protective equipment to safely protect them from exposure. This device includes gloves, goggles, breathing masks or barrier for CPR if necessary.
Education - Training and prevention drills for bloodborne pathogens are not necessary in all occupations.
If you call OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration), you may get the answer you are looking for. OSHA appears to be considering several factors in determining whether an employee needs to comply. For example, if you provide voluntary CPR / first aid training to employees, you may not need to take bloodborne pathogen training. If you specify a first aid response person within your organization, it probably falls under the training requirements.
Many of you know your employees. Occupational exposure risk. We recommend that you consider providing protection equipment and training to these employees if routine, or occasionally, staff members exposed to blood or body fluids are performing their duties.
Engineering Control - Engineering control helps protect employees from blood borne pathogen contamination and helps prevent the spread of pathogens in the workplace. Example of Engineering Control: An employee using leather working gloves is in contact with body fluids and aware that gloves are contaminated. To protect employees, you need two controls. First, knowing the risk of exposure, the worker needs to be able to complete the work with the gloves in hand. Secondly, the company should take steps to discard or clean dirty gloves.
Job Practice - Setting standard practices to prevent disease transmission is a very important part of the employer's responsibility to protect employees.
In the case of the above-mentioned body shop, the worker included to enclose the plastic around the seat pulled from the shipwreck and establish a policy to prohibit sitting on the seat even if a plastic cover is attached Yes.
Providing your own toolbox to your employees is another good way. If you are sharing tools, especially after accidents or injuries, please establish policies for cleaning and decontaminating tools. In addition, please let employees know the importance of disposal or purification of contaminated personal protective equipment.
Finally, we provide a bloodborne pathogen training course. It is an excellent way to prevent the spread of disease and to convey the importance of protecting the company from huge liabilities / workers compensation claims.
Arrange the documentation and documentation - As mentioned above, implement policies related to bloodborne pathogens in your surgery. Begin with small ones and deploy the policy as new problems emerge. Let's communicate with your people. Please make sure you know the importance of reporting procedures and possible contamination reporting.
OSHA has a template for creating your own company's bloodborne pathogen policy and / or procedure. Please download the form, fill in blanks such as company name, print, and print. Additional information can be obtained by calling the local OSHA office.
Training, policy is a valuable investment - I am a business, but if you hire an employee, my company is trained to risk the pathogens in the blood and pollution prevention, and my company is taking policy. Is there anything appropriate for the business, its employees and employers? If OSHA officials decide to visit, imagine how good it is to know that your activities are in compliance.
Invest the time to set up your program, distribute that information to employees, arrange a 30-minute blood-borne pathogen education and prevention class. The investment is small, but the payouts of you and employees are enormous.
