Hygiene in residential care: nursing home cleaning products
Nursing home cleaning products as an essential part of hygiene in nursing homes is a multi-faceted topic. The prevention of infections in care facilities is among the most important daily tasks in the residential care sector. The risks associated with MRSA and other antibiotic-resistant bacteria make this task especially challenging and problematic. Even in industrialised countries, around ten times more people die from infections contracted in care facilities than from traffic accidents.
Nursing home cleaning products: Basic hygiene principles in residential care
Hygiene is the doctrine of maintaining human health. Hence the importance of color: nursing home cleaning products. In principle, all hygiene measures in care facilities are aimed at identifying, reducing, removing or at least preventing the uncontrolled spread of germs.
The risk of infection for people in residential care is decisively influenced by the individual’s immune system and the prevalent nursing, medical and hygiene in care homes-related factors. An increased risk of infection may be caused by chronic diseases, functional restrictions, immobility, wounds or clouding of consciousness.
A detailed list of all the possible and necessary steps required to implement a comprehensive hygiene concept for a care facility (such as a hospital, old people’s home or nursing home) using adequate nursing home cleaning products would fill several volumes and go far beyond the remit of this article. Nevertheless, we will examine a few basic principles and some typical hygiene regulations in the residential care industry in more detail.
Despite common knowledge about the role of hands in the transmission of germs, most infections via contaminated hands are still caused by doctors, nurses, patients and visitors. Hand washing in care homes is particularly important. Although hand hygiene is taught intensively in every nursing school and the procedure is known by every member of the nursing staff, the challenge is to apply this knowledge consistently and thoroughly.
Stress, overload and staff shortages, all of which are frequent occurrences in the residential care sector, often undermine carefully planned hygiene measures. Who can honestly say that they always remember to wash and disinfect their hands carefully after a 14-hour shift?
For this reason, careful personnel planning is the first step towards implementing a successful hygiene concept.
Since the techniques for ensuring hand hygiene in nursing homes is the subject of a separate chapter, we will not discuss the details of hand disinfection in care facilities here.
In general, however, the following can be stated: hygienic hand disinfection in care facilities using nursing home cleaning products must always be carried out before and after any activity involving a risk of infection or contamination. This not only serves to protect patients, but also safeguards the health of all nursing staff. Normal social contact with patients without known infectious diseases does not require hand disinfection.
Care home cleaning and disinfection
Disinfection is a measure that places an object (including parts of the body) into a state in which it can no longer cause illness. The aim of disinfection is to reduce the number of pathogens to a safe level, i.e via eradication, inactivation, inhibition or removal of pathogenic microorganisms. Disinfection is always carried out with approved disinfectants and is a process with a standardised proof of effectiveness.
Cleaning is a process to remove impurities (e.g. dust, chemical substances, microorganisms, organic substances) through the use of water containing cleaning agents i.e. care home cleaning products, whereby the primary aim is not necessarily to kill microorganisms.
Daily, routine cleaning in nursing homes is carried out in accordance with the hygiene plan and with normal, household cleaning agents. In each case, the required nursing home cleaning procedures are specified for the respective area.
Here is a typical example of the work instructions contained in a hygiene plan for a care facility: „In the event of contamination with blood, bodily excretions or other biological substances, targeted disinfection must be carried out immediately in the affected area (e.g. floor, toilet). This means that gloves must be worn and the area generally cleaned with a paper towel before being disinfected with a wipe containing nursing home cleaning products in the form of a surface disinfectant.
Or: „Before aseptic activities (e.g. changing dressings, preparing medication, etc.) the work surface must be specifically disinfected with surface disinfectant and a wiping cloth.
Use of nursing home cleaning products during an outbreak of infection
Special measures must be taken for patients who are at increased risk of infection. In the event of outbreaks, disinfection measures must be carried out routinely and extensively. These must be detailed in advance in an action plan for emergencies and must include all affected areas, such as patients, nursing staff, visitors, external service providers (transport services, etc), the supply of cleaning agents, disinfectants and cleaning and protective equipment such as masks and gloves, disposal of infectious waste, as well as food and drink. In the ideal case, it should be possible to seal off any affected areas effectively within a short period of time, without disrupting the supply of materials needed for patient care.
Since outbreaks of infectious diseases such as noroviruses can disrupt the functioning of entire departments and facilities, as soon as they are suspected it is essential to notify everyone concerned in order to contain the epidemic. These precautionary measures must be taken as soon as two or more persons show acute signs of illness such as diarrhoea and/or vomiting (patients or staff), provided that they have recently had contact with each other.