CLINICAL LAB SCIENEC

150
ESSENTIALS OF CLINICAL LABORATORY SCIENCE
a stay in the hospital. Essentially, Standard Precautions is a term that refers to
those procedures that prevent the spread of organisms to the patient, and in so
doing serves to protect both the worker and the patient.
Universal Precautions
Guidelines established for protecting workers with occupational exposure
to bloodborne pathogens are called Universal Precautions. These “universal
blood and body fluid precautions” require the use of gloves, masks, and
gowns, as recommended by the CDC in 1985. They were mandated by the
OSHA Bloodborne Pathogens Standard in 1991 for workers in all U.S. health
care settings.
Preexposure Precautions
Work practice controls and engineered controls are important methods by which
to combat infection of workers and cross-contamination of other patients in
multiple patient cases .
Personal Protective Equipment and Work Practice Controls
The first line of defense includes proper washing of the hands routinely before
donning and after removing gloves following a procedure. Disposable gloves are
used for medical tasks, and strong, reusable gloves that require cleaning between
tasks are used for cleaning purposes. When airborne precautions are necessary,
disposable surgical face masks are used one time and then discarded. When a mask
becomes wet, it is removed as it is no longer effective as a preventive measure.
Goggles or face shields are required when splashing of blood a nd body fluids is
likely in tasks such as cauterizing, suctioning, and creating aerosols of any type.
Special clothing, including impermeable aprons , is worn to prevent saturation or
contamination of clothing by either chemicals or biohazardous materials.
Immunization and Vaccination
Immunization and vaccination are extremely effective to protect against certain
pathogenic organisms or to determine if exposure has occurred. Unimmunized
persons will react to immunization or to actual exposure in the same way, with
antibodies formed in both categories of persons. The PPD skin test determines
if exposure to the organism has occurred and if antibodies have been formed.
However, this test does not prevent TB but merely demonstrates exposure to
TB. If a chest radiograph is used to diagnose active TB, antibiotics may cure the
disease in its early stages.
HBV vaccine is now required of all who work directly with patients and
their body fluids, unless the worker elects to sign a declination form indicating
that he or she understands the risks and does not wish to be vaccinated. Immunity
is long term, but occasionally booster vaccines are administered to increase
one’s level of protection. MMR immunization is required of everyone, but those
Copyright 2010 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s).
Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.