Blood-borne pathogens precautions

Caring for Our Children: National Health and Safety Performance Standards states that staff must be educated about ways to prevent transmission of blood-borne pathogens before beginning to work in your facility and at least annually thereafter. Where applicable, training must comply with OSHA requirements.

Standard precautions include:

1. Ensure that surfaces that may come in contact with potentially infectious body fluids are disposable or made of a material that can be immediately sanitized. In some situations, you may need to hire a professional cleaning service.
2. Ensure staff wear disposable, non-latex gloves when cleaning and sanitizing contaminated surfaces.
3. Immediately clean up spills of body fluids, urine, feces, blood, saliva, nasal discharge, eye discharge, injury tissue discharges, and human milk.
   • For spills of vomit, urine, human milk, and feces, clean and sanitize all contaminated floors, walls, bathrooms, tabletops, toys, kitchen counter tops, and diaper-changing tables.
   • For spills of blood or injury and tissue discharges, clean and sanitize the area. Dispose of blood-contaminated material and diapers in a plastic bag with a secure tie.
   • Clean blood-contaminated floors and carpets by blotting to remove the fluid as quickly as possible, then sanitize by spot-cleaning with a detergent-disinfectant, and shampooing or steam-cleaning.

Be on the alert for kids who bite other kids. You are legally on notice once the first bite has been inflicted. Future bites can result in costly litigation. After the first biting incident, ask the parents to outline an acceptable plan to stop this behavior. If they refuse to cooperate, you might consider removing the child from your care.