Hygiene and Safety
Scope
Hygiene and safety questions ask what keeps a patient, a worker and a kitchen safe, and what to do when something goes wrong. They mix personal hygiene, environmental cleaning, ergonomics, fire and electrical safety, and incident reporting.
Core rules
- Personal hygiene: daily bath or bed bath, oral care at least twice daily, nail and hair care, clean uniform, no jewellery below the elbow, short nails, hair tied back.
- Safe patient handling: wide base of support, load close to the body, bend the knees not the back, never twist while lifting, use a hoist or two-person lift when the patient cannot help; a slide sheet reduces friction injury to the patient's skin.
- Falls prevention: low bed, brakes on, bed rails up where appropriate, call bell in reach, non-slip footwear, clear floor, adequate light, frequent orientation of confused patients.
- Fire: RACE - Rescue, Alarm, Contain, Evacuate (or Extinguish if trained); PASS - Pull, Aim, Squeeze, Sweep.
- Electrical safety: dry hands, no frayed cords, no overloaded sockets, switch off before cleaning, never use water on an electrical fire.
- Kitchen hygiene: cover food, separate raw and cooked items, wash hands and boards, keep hot food above 60 °C and cold food below 5 °C, never store chemicals in unlabelled containers near food.
Worked example
A fire starts in the ward pantry. Reasoning: move any patient in immediate danger away from the area (Rescue); activate the alarm and call the fire service (Alarm); close doors to limit spread (Contain); evacuate along the designated route and never use lifts (Evacuate). Only staff who are trained and confident should attempt a small fire with the correct extinguisher, and only with a clear escape route behind them.
Traps that cost marks
Using water on an electrical or oil fire; lifting with a bent back and twisting; leaving the bed at working height after care; storing cleaning fluid in a water bottle; forgetting to file an incident report after a near miss.