Managing biohazard exposures in the community

Abstract

The Silver Chain Nursing Association (SCNA) currently employs a total of 1953 staff and 900 volunteers who are involved in client/resident care over a large geographical area of Western Australia, stretching from Pannawonica in the north to Eucla in the east and as far south as Albany. The types of service provided include home help assistance, acute home care, country/remote area nursing services and palliative care. Care is also provided in three metropolitan and three country residential facilities. In October 1995, the Exposure Prevention Information Network (EPINet) was introduced to the SCNA which enabled the infection control clinical nurse consultant to monitor the current safety of the SCNA health care environment and plan effective interventions to reduce the number of biohazard exposures. The SCNA is the first and only community care organisation in Australia and New Zealand to adopt this surveillance system and become part of the national monitoring project established by the National Centre in HIV Epidemiology and Clinical Research. It was anticipated that participation in this project would assist with benchmarking against community organisations in the future and provide input to further improve the current system to meet the needs of SCNA. This paper will describe how an organisation as big and as geographically diverse as SCNA has reviewed and improved the prevention and management of biohazard exposures within its many different services.