Nursing Officer

Job Responsibilities:

Hospital Infection Control Nurse

1. Education of all nursing staff:

• Hand hygiene
• Personal Protective Equipment - appropriate PPE for various situations and preventing inappropriate use.
• Preventing needle stick injuries and the protocol for NSI / mucosal exposure.
• Biomedical waste management
• Linen management
• Isolation precautions & communication of information during transfer of patients.
• Notifiable diseases and management of outbreaks
• Prevention of ventilator associated pneumonia, surgical site infections, line related blood stream infections and catheter associated urinary tract infections
• Method of performing blood cultures
• Cleaning, disinfection and sterilization of items/equipment/environment and fogging
• Handling blood and body fluid spills

2. Surveillance (includes bedside education and feedback to shift in charge/manager)

• Hand hygiene compliance
• Care of IV Lines (peripheral & central)
• Urinary catheter care
• Suctioning method
• Linen handling
• Biomedical waste management
• Cleanliness – patients bedside, window sills, floor, ceiling, AC grills, drinking water area and toilets.
• Housekeeping staff - method of cleaning, dilution of disinfectants, terminal cleaning.
• Ensuring appropriate isolation precautions are followed

3. Documentation

• Hand hygiene audit
• Surgical site infection rate
• CAUTI rate
• Needle stick injury rate
• VAP, CLABSI – in ITUs
• Linen audit
• Biomedical waste management audit
• Surveillance cultures – to send environmental cultures according to surveillance sampling schedule and document the results.
• Details of patients with positive cultures – to discuss with HIC consultant or Consultant with an interest in Infectious Diseases. Obtain relevant details to determine if pt has a VAP, CLABSI, CAUTI or SSI.

4. Presentations:

Data to be compiled & presented every quarter in the HICC meeting:

1. • VAP
   • CLABSI
   • CAUTI
   • SSI
   • Hand hygiene compliance
   • Needle stick injury

5. Occupational exposure to blood / body fluids: The HIC nurses are notified of any occupational exposure immediately. They organize testing of the staff member and the patient and ensure that the protocol for needle stick injury is followed.