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Anaesthetist Hymn

Infection Control

When I was a student, an infection control nurse told me that infection control is not rocket science but common sense. I never forgot that. And in the daily life in the hospital, it is often observed that common sense is not so common after all. Why is that?...

Lately in work, I brought to the attention of my senior, the "need-to-improve" infection control practice of the anaesthetist in theatre.

To me, placing a sterile bung (cover) at the end of a syringe to stop it from getting contaminated makes sense, infection-control-wise. So that when you administer the medicine to the patient, the possibility of infection risk to the patient is even more minimized compared to when you did not cover the syringe. Although, yes it is clean, but when you put a bung on it while lying on the counter waiting to be used, the possibility of infection is even lessened than when you did not cover it. To me, that was common sense.

Besides, what was the reason that it couldn't be done? If it was an emergency and there was no time, fine. That is acceptable. You gotta have your priorities right. Save the life first and we can worry about infection later. But on an 8-hour procedure, one has the time to cover syringes, surely. So it awfully looks to me like sheer laziness. To me that is not acceptable.

It took my seniours a long while to respond. Then they called the Infection Control Nurse of the Trust. Guess what she told me...

We need to gather more evidence that, "not putting a bung on a syringe", is an infection risk.

And I was dismissed. Ok...... Guess, that infection control nurse when I was a student was wrong....??

This is where you think for yourself....

For me, if I were the patient, I would rather that the doctors cover the syringes with a sterile bung to minimise the risk of infection to me.

Introductory Blog

Hello everyone,

Please call me Phantom Nurse. I am a qualified nurse practicing in the UK. I would like to reach out to all patients, colleagues, other healthcare practitioners (whether qualified or unqualified) and students to share their views with everybody. I have my own opinion as a qualified nurse, but, we can have an even broader view with more people sharing their brain-power. This exercise will hopefully help make me and other healthcare practitioners a better healthcare provider. This will also give patients opportunity to make their views heard. You can ask me questions or make a comment. You can email me at perfectlywckd-phantom [at] yahoo [dot] com. Please bear in mind that I am not all-knowing, therefore may not have the answers you want.

My workplace does not allow me to go onto the internet or on any public domain with any identifiable markers that might lead to them or to them through me, thus the Phantom Nurse pseudoname. Plus, I am also a fan of caped cruisaders... and we have... Phantom Nurse... welcome to my blog!

Regards,
Phantom Nurse

Disclaimer

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