{"id":39,"date":"2010-06-02T10:49:35","date_gmt":"2010-06-02T10:49:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thewoundcentre.com\/a\/?p=39"},"modified":"2010-11-29T02:03:20","modified_gmt":"2010-11-29T02:03:20","slug":"infection-control-bed-making-%c2%a9","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/thewoundcentre.com\/a\/39\/infection-control-bed-making-%c2%a9\/","title":{"rendered":"HiCare\u2122 Bath, Making Beds &#038; Infection Control"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong> <\/strong><br \/>\nWe have introduced the HiCare \u2122 Bath technology elsewhere on this site and have said that one advantage of bed-bathing patients using HiCare \u2122 Bath cloths is that the sheets don&#8217;t get wet, as they do with conventional bed-bathing and bowls of water.<\/p>\n<p>When you think about it the [conventional] bowl of water, to bed-bath a patient, rapidly becomes a\u00a0<em>\u2018bacteria soup&#8217; <\/em>as soon as you dip the washcloth into the bowl.<\/p>\n<p>Bugs are being transferred from one part of the body, to every other part as you move the washcloth from the face to the feet!! Then you have to carry the bowl to the pan-room to pour the [bacteria soup] water out \u2013 aerosolising the water and the bugs!!<\/p>\n<p>Who needs it? Use HiCare \u2122 Bath instead. Sheets may not need to be changed and laundered &#8212; saving time, money and water!<\/p>\n<p>Not having to change sheets means there are fewer opportunities for micro-organisms to be dispersed into the air as sheets are pulled off the bed and (thrown!) into the linen skip.<\/p>\n<p>Micro-organisms flying through the air will land on you, the other patients, curtains, trolleys and fomites such as tourniquets and sphygmomanometer cuffs.<\/p>\n<p>Read more about these infection control issues on this website, in particular fomites and methicillin-resistant\u00a0<em>Staphylococcus aureus <\/em>(MRSA)\u00a0<em>, <\/em>a major culprit in cross-infection.<\/p>\n<p><em>Meanwhile a few tips to reduce cross-infection when changing sheets:<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Why not print off the table &amp; paste it in the linen cupboard, pan room \u2013 give each of your staff a copy!! Help them to help themselves.<\/p>\n<table border=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\" width=\"100%\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"46%\"><strong>Do&#8217;s<\/strong><strong> <\/strong><\/td>\n<td width=\"51%\"><strong>Don&#8217;ts<\/strong><strong> <\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"46%\">\u2022\u00a0   Remove sheets from the bed <em>slowly <\/em>\u2013 keep the bugs in<\/td>\n<td width=\"51%\">\u2022\u00a0 Do   not\u00a0<em>pull <\/em>sheets off the bed at speed \u2013 this will disperse bugs<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"46%\">\u2022\u00a0 Place   in linen skip\u00a0<em>slowly<\/em><\/td>\n<td width=\"51%\">\u2022 Do   not\u00a0<em>throw <\/em>sheets into the skip<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"46%\">\u2022 After   removing sheets from the bed, clean your hands with a waterless ethanol gel   \/liquid<\/td>\n<td width=\"51%\">\u2022\u00a0 Don&#8217;t   touch the clean sheets until you have cleaned your hands with a waterless   ethanol gel \/liquid<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"46%\">\u2022\u00a0 If   the sheets are wet\/soiled with urine, blood, faeces etc, wash your hands   under running water first<\/td>\n<td width=\"51%\">\u2022\u00a0 Do   not touch anything with hands that have been in contact with urine, blood,   faeces etc.\u2013 this will just spread bacteria<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"46%\">\u2022\u00a0 Keep   clean &amp; dirty linen separate (trolley &amp; skip)<\/td>\n<td width=\"51%\">\u2022\u00a0 Do   not balance clean sheets on top of the dirty skip to push around<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"46%\">\u2022\u00a0Please   put pillows and bedspreads on a chair<\/td>\n<td width=\"51%\">\u2022\u00a0Don&#8217;t   put pillows and bedspreads on the floor or another patient&#8217;s bed<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p><strong>Why use an alcohol gel handrub?<\/strong><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>The concentration of ethanol will kill bacteria on the      hands without making your skin dry and sore<\/li>\n<li>I find the alcohol gel is much kinder to my skin.<\/li>\n<li>Using ethanol gel is equal, or superior, to hand      washing liquid &amp; water<\/li>\n<li>It&#8217;s fast \u2013 rubbing an ethanol gel on your hands      between every patient care activity takes a matter of seconds<\/li>\n<li>Going to a hand-basin to wash and dry hands takes much      longer \u2013 perhaps that is one reason why it isn&#8217;t done as often as it      should be<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><strong> <\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We have introduced the HiCare \u2122 Bath technology elsewhere on this site and have said that one advantage of bed-bathing patients using HiCare \u2122 Bath cloths is that the sheets don&#8217;t get wet, as they do with conventional bed-bathing and bowls of water. When you think about it the [conventional] bowl of water, to bed-bath [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-39","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-wound-management-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/thewoundcentre.com\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/thewoundcentre.com\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/thewoundcentre.com\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thewoundcentre.com\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thewoundcentre.com\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"http:\/\/thewoundcentre.com\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":119,"href":"http:\/\/thewoundcentre.com\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39\/revisions\/119"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/thewoundcentre.com\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thewoundcentre.com\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thewoundcentre.com\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}