In the article we consider what personal hygiene of medical personnel consists of. All employees of medical institutions must comply with all hygiene rules, because this should not be neglected. This is required for the workers themselves and for all patients they serve. And for these reasons, each clinical employee is required to act as a real example of a high sanitary culture.
What does the personal hygiene of medical personnel imply?
General rules and requirements of SanPiN
Here are the accepted standards for hygiene:
- The nails of such workers should be cut short.
- It is forbidden to wear rings and other jewelry that impede the effective removal of microscopic organisms during the processing of the hands of medical personnel.
- The edges of the work uniform should fully cover the basic clothing.
- Hair should be covered with a hat or headscarf.
- Replaceable shoes should be made of materials available for disinfection.
- What does the hygiene of the hands of medical personnel in SanPiNu suggest? The use of protective gloves is mandatory in all situations when contact is made with blood or other contaminated materials, damaged skin or mucous membranes.
- The process of washing and treating the hands of medical personnel involves the complete removal of dirt, as well as transient microflora that contaminate the skin.
- Dry hands after washing with a disposable towel. In exceptional situations, it is allowed to apply the individual, the change of which should be carried out daily. This is confirmed by the guidelines for hand hygiene of medical personnel.
- Hand antiseptics include the use of chemicals with antimicrobial effects and intended for decontamination of microflora. Depending on the goals and the required degree of decontamination, hygienic and surgical antiseptics are distinguished.
- Senior and junior medical personnel must be provided with the necessary lotions to reduce the risk of contact dermatitis.
- As part of the intravenous injection of a drip of liquid, it is additionally provided to wear a mask, glasses, an apron or a protective shield.
Personal hygiene of medical personnel is very important.
Tuberculosis dispensaries are strictly prohibited from:
- Sit on the patients bed.
- Visit medical departments without sanitary hygienic shoes and clothes.
- Move arbitrarily to the department of the infectious diseases hospital, in which the therapy of patients with other groups of pathologies is organized.
- To go out of the infectious premises in sanitary clothing, put personal items on top of the workers, and also take the medical uniform home for any purpose.
- Use a restroom designed for patients, as well as utensils and other things.
- Eat in wards, laboratories, or in corridors.
About washing the hands of medical personnel according to SanPiNu we will tell below.
Infection prevention
In order to prevent nosocomial diseases in a hospital, it is necessary:
- Compliance with the sequence of medical and diagnostic procedures, as well as manipulations, cleaning and other work in the wards for patients with various infectious diseases.
- Cleaning the premises along with the collection and disposal of waste.
- Use of additional sets of sanitary and hygienic clothing and personal protective equipment.
- Wearing a mask when visiting patients wards with respiratory tract infections.
- Carrying out hygienic treatment of the skin of the hands after visiting boxed wards, before and after medical and diagnostic procedures, contacts with infectious patients, their secretions, before going home and so on.
Hand washing algorithm
After each measure taken, especially after patient care, hospital staff should wash their hands thoroughly with hot water using a brush and soap. In the event that there is such a need, then a disinfectant solution must be used, for example, 0.2% clarified bleach or 1% chloramine. We examined the hand washing algorithm, now let's talk about the antiseptic of things.
Workwear Hygiene
An extremely important role in the treatment of patients with purulent surgical pathologies is played by the hygiene of the clothing of medical personnel. Appropriate appearance places patients to the doctor, contributing to the development of a trusting relationship. A clean, and at the same time a white, smoothed robe can soothe a sick person, convincing him of a qualified and high-quality treatment, and in addition, directing him to fight against the existing disease. The confident appearance of the doctor, as a rule, sets up patients for a favorable outcome of the disease. Wearing clinical clothing prevents infection and the development of nosocomial pathologies.
The use of a mask or gauze dressings protects the doctor from getting pathogens from the patient, and vice versa: infection from the doctor by airborne droplets. Gloves protect personnel from any cuts during opening of ampoules, during surgical operations, as well as from infection through biomaterial by different pathogens. Replaceable shoes make it possible to clean the premises of the department clean, preventing dust accumulation along with dirt from the street, and this always favorably affects the patient's well-being, contributing to his recovery and facilitating the course of respiratory pathologies.
What other requirements for personal hygiene of medical personnel are presented?
Compliance with the principle of isolation
To combat infections and to prevent their subsequent spread throughout the hospital, it is necessary to strictly observe the principles of isolation, which include, first of all, the placement of purulent and clean patients on different floors in the department. Such patients should not meet among themselves, therefore they eat in separate dining rooms, use their shower rooms and toilets.
Personal medical staff is in purulent and clean departments, otherwise the doctor may be a carrier of infection from one patient to another. The linen from the various compartments should not be stored in one set, it should be sterilized and stored separately. Against this background, purulent sector allows the use of exclusively sterile sheets and duvet covers, and in the clean they can simply be washed.
The rule of wearing medical caps, bathrobes and shoes
Important principles in the framework of personal hygiene of primary medical personnel include the regulation of the use of clinical clothing with its daily change. After arriving at the workplace, the doctor should take a shower. In offices, as a rule, two individual lockers are equipped for each employee. For example, in one of them, the staff, arriving at the clinic, must leave their clothes, in the other, store special items such as work dresses and shoes that are worn before performing duties. At the end of the day, personal sanitary processing must be carried out without fail.
The robe with the cap should be ironed and clean. They must be washed at least once a week. The working form should be so long as to cover the basic clothes for women, and for men at least reach the knees. As a rule, a dressing gown is buttoned tightly. It is recommended that its sleeves be long (for example, two-thirds of the length is allowed). The cuffs must be fastened. Gamma ranges from light shades of blue and pink to white.
The cap on the head should be completely covered with a cap, since otherwise dust may settle (against the background of this, the spread of microscopic organisms is quite possible). Resistance among young employees, often considering the hygiene requirement to be excessive, should be extended through persuasion and administrative influence. A lot of trouble usually occurs with fashion lovers who have long hair or beards and do not want to understand that they are a dangerous staphylococcal reservoir, representing a potential threat to patients.
Slippers are recommended for leather, which have a rubberized sole; as a rule, they are very convenient to wash, and at the same time to disinfect. In no case do they allow the wearing of fur and felt products, as they very quickly absorb dust and moisture into themselves and can serve as a source of nosocomial infection. Shoes should be comfortable so that you can walk in it for a long time, so that your feet do not sweat in it. There should be no noise during movement. Today, the transition to the use of disposable medical suits from light tissues, which do not need to be sterilized, is being observed.
Personal underwear requirements and wearing rules
Employees' clothing should be predominantly made of cotton. The surgical departments do not allow the wearing of wool and synthetic fabrics, as they serve as a favorable environment for infectious spread. Clothing must always be clean. Laundry is washed at least once a week, and socks every three to four days. Things of the clinical staff cannot be provocative and have bright colors. Short skirts, open tops and the like are not allowed. Makeup is minimal.
In surgery, the use of tight trousers, regardless of gender, is recommended as a component of personal clothing. Eau de toilette for such personnel should not be felt, as some patients can be very sensitive to different smells, and this can provoke negative emotions.
Personal shoes should be leather if possible. Exclude high heels, because while walking they create noise, which can interfere with patients. Street shoes before entering the hospital should wash or shake off a threshold or rug. Directly in the office, shoes are changed to clean slippers.
In addition to washing the hands of medical personnel according to SanPiN, it is also important to maintain a clean body.
Body Hygiene - What Does It Mean?
The staff must use their toilet and sink, in no case do not visit the restrooms of patients. Before visiting such a place, you should take off your bathrobe, then wash your hands with soap and water under running warm water. In the event that the clinical staff has a runny nose, then it is necessary to use paper handkerchiefs and wear gauze bandages. What else suggests body hygiene for medical staff? For women, it is advisable to use tampons and pads. Employees should not have any bleeding wounds, ulcers and cuts, as this can lead to infection of the patient from the doctor and vice versa. Periodic washing of certain areas of the body and natural openings is required.
Ethics of medical staff
The ethics of such an employee implies moral standards that relate to special issues of the respective profession. In addition to moral universal principles, an employee must possess moral qualities arising from the characteristics of his field of activity. The behavior of such a person must comply with the basic principles of health care.
In particular, medical confidentiality should be said. This is an ethical issue for healthcare providers. Due to the peculiarities of the activities of physicians, patients reveal to them their deepest experiences, share information about family and other matters that he does not tell anyone else. There may be data of a nature that the patient trusts only to the doctor or nurse. If the information told to the patient is not socially harmful, it should not be reported to anyone.
Ethical issues include the personal reputation of the average clinical worker. It must be impeccable. A clinical employee cannot, for example, effectively participate in the treatment of alcoholics if it is known that he drinks. And when the feldsher or nurse smokes in the presence of the patient, they certainly will not be able to convince him that it is harmful.
Requirements for clinical personnel visiting operating rooms, dressing rooms and intensive care units
As part of the visit to such rooms, staff puts on special clothing stored in lockers. In order to reduce the risk of drip infections, you need to close your mouth with special masks, which are prepared from four gauze layers measuring 16 by 20 centimeters with four stitches sewn to the corners. Other types of protection are also used, but all of them must necessarily cover the chin, nose and mouth. The mask is sterilized before use. While putting it on, they hold it by the ends of the ties so that they can be taken without touching the surgeon's hands. The nurse comes in from behind, grabs the ends, holds them behind the ears, fixing the thing on the crown of the head.
The dressing gown is sewn of thick fabric. Tied to the back. Before sterilization, it is folded so that the sleeves are folded inward. It is removed from the drum and deployed very carefully with disinfected hands so as not to touch anything sterile, while keeping it away from itself. Having unfolded medical clothing, both hands are inserted into it alternately, throwing themselves at the front.
Behind the thing is tied by another person. The belt before the sterilization procedure, put in a dressing gown, is taken out by the donor himself and pulled in front so that the free ends hang. The nurse takes them and ties them from behind. Sleeves should be long enough to completely close the forearm to the hand. The personnel who take part in the operation, without fail, puts on a cloth cap or headscarf that completely covers the hair.
We examined the personal hygiene of medical personnel.