What Are the Principles for Aseptic Working?

1. What are the principles for aseptic working?

The aseptic working is the practice to reduce or eliminate contaminants (such as bacteria, fungi…) from entering the operative field in surgery/medical to prevent infection. There are several aseptic procedures or principles for aseptic work that a nurse need to perform in order to prevent the transmission of infection to the patient during clinical procedures, such as aseptic work of order, hand hygiene, personal hygiene, time to make a lot in advance, time enough and peaceful environment, good light and informing or guiding or teaching the patient.

Aseptic work of order means a nurse have to consider what to conduct before any procedure in order to create a microorganism-free environment for both the nurse and the patient. Firstly, a nurse have to accomplish cleaning, disinfection and sterilisation. By completing these three steps, a nurse have removed all the dirt, germs from surfaces, disinfected or reduce harmful microorganisms from surfaces and sterilised all living microorganism (both surfaces and surgical instruments) respectively. Further, after removing all the bacterias from the working space, aseptic work of order also involves which patient need to take care first. For instance, the patient without any infections need to be taken care first and then those with infections. The reason for making these choices is to minimise the germ-spreading from one another. Therefore, aseptic work of order is very important for a nurse in medical procedure.

In addition, hand hygiene and personal hygiene are also crucial in the process of delivering safe care to the patient. Before providing care to the patient, a nurse need to wash her/his hands by applying hand disinfectant to dry hands, then rub finger tips of each hand in opposite palm. It is important to spread disinfectant all over the hands to ensure all the germs are killed. Repeat the process of hand rubbing until they are completely dried. After hand disinfection, it is now safe for further procedure. Besides, a nurse also have to keep her/his self clean before making contact with the patient. For example, apply clean and neat nursing gown after working with a patient with infection and apply hand washing or disinfection after meeting those patients in order to stop the infectious bacterias from spreading. Additionally, when working with syringe or any dangerous medical instruments, it is best for a nurse to remove all personal belongings such as rings and bracelet because the microorganism usually presents in between the rings and the fingers, where cleaning can not reach to those areas. It is also for the safety reason due to the fact that sometimes, bracelets can be stuck while inserting the syringe. Therefore, hand hygiene and personal hygiene are one of the most significant way of aseptic procedures that a nurse have to be taken into account.