In recent months, we have realized the destruction and transmission of Covid-19 across the world. First found over a year ago, this airborne disease has traveled across the globe and back, proving fatal in millions of cases. However, now at the tail end of this deadly global pandemic, people are beginning to think – what could we have done differently?
With continuing and ever-evolving protective measures, healthcare measures, and standards in the workplace that protect doctors and nurses, we need to think of ways that society can evolve and change to keep everyone safe and healthy. One of the most important ways to help remain safe is to provide proper workplace training and certification opportunities.
By developing a gold standard of disease and bloodborne pathogens prevention training, healthcare corporations can ensure their personnel are protected. Along with providing education and enough resources to keep their workers healthy, the employees of healthcare professionals can learn what to do in case they are infected – and how to stop the spread of disease in its tracks.
Let’s see the primary and most effective ways healthcare workers can fight the spread of disease in their workplace!
5 ways to fight covid and bloodborne pathogens
Without healthcare workers having the proper knowledge and resources to learn how to stop the spread of the disease, society would be doomed. Like other diseases in the past, like the AIDS epidemic that shook the bloodborne pathogens and healthcare world, Covid-19 has changed the airborne pathogen realm.
With skepticism and downplay in the media at the beginning of the pandemic, everyone has seen the wrath of this deadly and harmful virus during the past year. Let’s see the main ways healthcare workers can fight this pathogen at work before it gets to the general public.
Isolate workers who show symptoms
If you find that one of your employees or colleagues has symptoms of a harmful bloodborne pathogen or Covid-19, the first step to take is quarantine. Just like we see nearly everyone around the world quarantined at some point or another, whether due to a city-wide lockdown or quarantine after testing positive, isolation is often the best method to stop the spread of disease.
If you do not contact another person, whether by physical touch or breathing in the same proximity, the potential for the spread of disease is significantly reduced. One of the main ways airborne pathogens, like Covid, are spread is via talking, sneezing, or coughing. If you breathe in air particles from an infected person, you will catch the disease.
Along with ingesting air particles, if a person coughs or sneezes without a face covering and lands on their hand or a surface, it can ‘live’ on that surface for an extended period. The following person who touches that surface and then touches their face or mask can contract the disease.
Therefore, isolation when it comes to showing symptoms ensures no one else will breathe in your air or touch contaminated surfaces.
Clean and disinfect after touching surfaces
If you think that someone in your workplace may have Covid-19 – or you work in an occupation where diseases are commonplace – make sure you disinfect any surface after touching or after being in contact with another non-healthcare worker. If someone has been in your work area, whether it is a colleague, boss, employee, or patient, and you think they have an airborne disease, disinfect any surface with disinfectant while wearing gloves and a mask.
The area should be cleaned after each person touches it, making sure no germs left on the surface can transmit to another person’s hands or face. If possible, wait 24 hours before cleaning or disinfecting a surface that a tested-positive person has touched. When you can, make sure you wear protective equipment, like a mask, gloves, and a gown, while cleaning infected surfaces to prevent spreading the disease.
In terms of bloodborne pathogens, ensure you clean any bodily fluids or blood off surfaces with the protective measures in place. Ensure you do not touch anything with bare hands, and you dispose of blood in the proper receptacle to prevent the spread of bloodborne pathogens.
Make sure your hazard communication efforts are current and available for employees to read when the time comes. You want to ensure all employees are aware of the proper disposal methods and cleaning protocol.
Provide guidance on testing
The third way you can help fight Covid-19, and the spread of bloodborne pathogens is by providing educational resources and information regarding testing. If workers are unsure about how to best protect themselves against Covid, make sure you broadcast the testing opportunities they have. Along with testing methods, ensure you can provide vaccination information to your employees.
Without testing, you will not be able to check if your employees are positive or negative. Testing allows all employees to make sure they are healthy and ready for work, preventing the spread of Covid-19 unknowingly by a positive and asymptomatic person.
Report Covid-19 infections
The fourth way you can help prevent the catching and spread of Covid-19, and bloodborne pathogens is by recording Covid infections and bloodborne infections at your workplace. Make a note of where the person was infected, if possible, who was infected, the age of the person, and the occupation of the person who was infected.
By keeping information regarding the infected people, you can see any patterns that emerge at your workplace.
Make a Covid vaccination available
Ensure a Covid-19 vaccination is available in your workplace to adequately protect all employees from catching the disease. Vaccination is the easiest and most effective way to prevent transmission of the Covid-19 disease since global vaccination can virtually eradicate the disease altogether.
Conclusion
Healthcare occupations need to learn the best ways to fight the contraction and spread of Covid-19 and bloodborne pathogens. By following bloodborne and airborne pathogen training, cleaning and disinfecting surfaces, testing for disease, and providing vaccination opportunities, corporations can keep their employees safe.
Throughout the year, our writers feature fresh, in-depth, and relevant information for our audience of 40,000+ healthcare leaders and professionals. As a healthcare business publication, we cover and cherish our relationship with the entire health care industry including administrators, nurses, physicians, physical therapists, pharmacists, and more. We cover a broad spectrum from hospitals to medical offices to outpatient services to eye surgery centers to university settings. We focus on rehabilitation, nursing homes, home care, hospice as well as men’s health, women’s heath, and pediatrics.
