Body Substance Isolation

 Body Substance Isolation

Body Substance Isolation is an infection control concept and practice that is designed to approach all body fluids as being potentially infectious. You should always follow body substance isolation techniques to protect yourself and your patient. Modes of transmission:

Blood or fluid splash

Needle stick exposure

Oral contamination due to lack of hand washing

Contaminated Surface. 

Hand washing.- Hand washing is one of the simplest, yet most effective way to control disease transmission. –you should always wash your hands before and after contact with a patient, regardless of whether you wear gloves, wash your hands before performing a procedure, after glove removal, and between patients. If no running water is available, you may use waterless hand washing substitutes and make sure that you wash your hands once you arrive at the hospital. The proper procedure for hand washing is as follows”

·        Use soap & water

·        Rub your hands together for at least 10 to 15 seconds to work up a lather

·        Rinse your hands and dry them with a paper towel

·        Use the paper towel to turn off the faucet.

Gloves and Eye Protection. Glove protection comes in materials as vinyl and latex to provide adequate protection. Your department may prefer one type of glove over the other, or you may choose yourself. You may wish to select a particular type of glove for a particular patient care task.  Anyway, gloves and eye protection are the minimum standard for all patient care if there is any possibility for exposure to blood or body fluids. Wear double glove if there is massive bleeding, and you may also wear double gloves if you will be exposed to large volumes of other body fluids.

Be sure to change gloves as you move from patient to patient. For cleaning and disinfecting the unit, you should use heavy duty utility gloves. You should never use lightweight latex or vinyl gloves for cleaning.

Meanwhile, Eye protection is important in case blood splatters into your eye. Wearing goggles is your best protection. However, you need not wear goggles if you wear prescription glasses. Prescription glasses are acceptable as eye protection, but you must add removable side shield when on duty.

Mask & Cover Gowns; A mask and gown provide protection from extensive blood splatter. Occasionally, you may need to wear a mask and gown for some situations. Gowns may be worn in situations such as field delivery of a baby or in a major trauma. However, wearing a gown may not be practical in many situations, in fact some instances, a gown may pose a risk for injury.

Your department will likely have a policy regarding gowns. Be sure you know your local policy.

There are times when a change of uniform is preferred because trying to clean off contaminants is difficult and sometimes impossible without professional cleaning and disinfection or disposing of the uniform entirely.

The use of mask is becoming a very complex issue in prehospital care. Many EMS systems have protocols that determine the type of mask that should be used in specific situations, if blood splatter is a real possibility, you should wear a standard surgical mask. If you suspect that a patient has an airborne disease, like tuberculosis, you should place a surgical mask on the patient. In addition, you should wear a High Efficiency Particulate Air (HEPA) Respirator on a patient.

You must consider also that outside surfaces of these items are considered contaminated after they have been exposed to the patient.

You must make sure that gloves, mask, gowns, and all other items that have been exposed to infectious processes or blood are properly disposed of according to local guidelines. If you are stuck by a needle, or get blood in your eye, or have any body fluid contact with the patient, immediately report this incident to your supervisor.