IPC13.2012 Provide guidance, resources and support to enable staff to minimise the risk of spreading infection

Overview

This standard concerns providing management guidance and support, including ensuring that appropriate training is provided to all health and social care staff, to enable them to minimise the risk of acquiring and spreading infection. It applies to those managing staff working in all health and social care environments, including domiciliary and community care and ambulance care settings. Users of this standard will need to ensure that practice reflects up to date information and policies. Version No 2

Knowledge and Understanding

You will need to know and understand:

1. relevant standard infection prevention and control precautions, national legislation/guidance and local policies/procedures
2. health and safety regulations covering your area of responsibility
3. regulations and guidelines concerning hazardous substances
4. the principles of isolation and the placement of individuals
5. the chain of infection
6. immunisations that can protect against vaccine preventable infections and the means of referring staff for occupational health advice
7. appropriate facilities and processes for hand hygiene
8. effective techniques for maintaining hand hygiene
9. appropriate facilities for first aid provision
10. the personal protective equipment your staff need
11. how to ensure risks of infection are expertly assessed in your area of activity
12. improvement methodologies in relation to infection prevention and control
13. what actions should be taken before, during and after a procedure to minimise the risks of infection
14. risk assessment in relation to infection prevention and control
15. how to secure induction training and further updates for your staff
16. the importance of having adequate resources available to staff and how to acquire them to enable staff to apply the agreed infection prevention and control policies/procedures and guidelines
17. how to monitor staff practices and to take action to maintain the required standards
18. your own role and responsibilities and the responsibilities of others
19. how to maintain relevant documentation required in your area of activity as required for assurance purposes
20. accident and incident reporting and the mechanisms to ensure action is taken to improve standards
21. the processes to monitor the occurrence of infection relevant to the roles of your staff
22. how, when and to whom to report issues that are within and outside your scope of practice

Performance Criteria

You must be able to do the following:

1. access, apply, adopt or develop clear infection prevention and control policies, guidelines and standard operating procedures for your area of responsibility that are in line with local and national policies/procedures
2. clearly communicate the policies and guidelines to all your staff, and to patients/service users and visitors and ensure they are easily accessible
3. arrange for induction training and further updates to ensure staff have the knowledge and skills to apply infection prevention and control policies/procedures and guidelines
4. ensure that infection prevention and control is an integral part of all staff personal objectives and clearly portrayed as everyone’s responsibility
5. protect staff by ensuring they have access to resources to enable them to minimise the risks of infection while carrying out their jobs
6. monitor, audit and provide feedback on staff practices in relation to infection prevention and control
7. monitor the resources, equipment and those aspects of the environment that affect practices in relation to infection prevention and control
8. where problems or adverse events are observed or reported, investigate the causes and, where appropriate, initiate prompt remedial action and communicate findings to the appropriate person(s)
9. analyse trends of all reported adverse events and occurrences of infection to identify recurrent problems and initiate action to address them
10. report risks and hazards that are outside your area of responsibility to the relevant person

Additional Information

This National Occupational Standard was developed by Skills for Health. There are additional NOS on the Skills for Health website relating to Decontamination. This standard links with the following dimension within the NHS Knowledge and Skills Framework (October 2004): Dimension: Core 3 Health, safety and security