First and Foremost: Wash your hands thoroughly with soap and water before and after providing care.

Put on disposable gloves when providing personal cares, laundering bed linens, nightclothes, underclothing and towels.  Wash these items with soap, water and bleach.

DO NOT HANDLE your client’s needles, sharps or lancets.  Your client will handle their own needle & sharps use and disposal.  You may only hand your client their red sharps container for disposal.

When cleaning up blood use gloves and bleach or antimicrobial wipes, dispose of wipes and gloves in trash receptacle.  If you have no wipes use paper towels and a bleach formula of 1 part bleach to 10 parts water.  If the spill is mixed with any sharp objects, such as glass or needles do not pick these up; instead use cardboard or thick paper.  Next, disinfect by putting the bleach wipes on the area for 20 minutes, clean up, and dispose of wipes and gloves.  Call your supervisor if in doubt of proper disposal.

If you suspect you have been exposed to an infectious disease, contact your supervisor @ 757-5940, ask for and fill out the exposure reporting form, and see your personal physician immediately.