BEFORE GIVING CARE

PREVENTING DISEASE TRANSMISSION

INTRODUCTION

In this lesson, you will learn:

1. Your top priority is to ensure your own safety.

2. To protect yourself from disease transmission.

3. How to obtain consent to give care.

4. The “Good Samaritan Law.”

Preventing Disease Transmission

Diseases that can pass from other people, animals, insects or things are called infectious diseases. They can develop when a pathogen enters the body.

A pathogen is a germ. Two types: Bacteria and Viruses.

“Standard Precautions.” This term refers to actions you can take to prevent the spread of disease while giving care.

STANDARD PRECAUTIONS WHILE GIVING CARE

1. Avoid contact with blood and other body fluids or objects that may be soiled with blood or other body fluids.

2. Use protective CPR breathing barriers.

3. Use barriers, such as disposable gloves, between the person’s blood or body fluids and yourself.

4. Before putting on personal protective equipment, such as disposable gloves or plastic face shield, cover any of your own cuts, scrapes, or sores with a bandage.

Standard precautions (continued)

5. Good Hygiene habits, like frequent hand washing , help to prevent disease transmission.

6. Do not eat, drink or touch your mouth, nose or eyes when giving care.

FOUR CONDITIONS THAT MUST BE PRESENT…

… FOR A DISEASE TO BE TRANSMITTED.

1. A pathogen must be present.

2. Enough of the pathogen is present to cause infection.

3. The pathogen passes through an entry site (eyes, mucus membranes, open cuts in skin).

4. A person is susceptible to the pathogen.

OBTAINING CONSENT TO GIVE CARECONSCIOUS VICTIM

Before giving first aid to a conscious adult victim, you must get his/her permission to give care. This permission is referred to as “Consent.”

To get consent, you must tell the victim:

1. Who you are.

2. Your level of training

3. The care you would like to give.

OBTAINING CONSENT (CONTINUED)

Do not give care to a conscious victim who refuses it. However, if a victim does not give consent, you should still call 9-1-1.

If the conscious victim is an infant or child, get consent from the parent or guardian when one is available.

OBTAINING CONSENT TO GIVE CAREUNCONSCIOUS/UNABLE TO RESPOND

Sometimes, adults may not be able to give expressed consent. This includes people who are unconscious or unable to respond, confused, mentally impaired, seriously injured or seriously ill. In these cases, the law assumes that if the person could respond, he or she would agree to care.

This is called “IMPLIED CONSENT.”

GOOD SAMARITAN LAWS

GOOD SAMARITAN LAWS (CONT.)

The vast majority of states and the District of Columbia have Good Samaritan Laws that protect people against claims of negligence when they give emergency care in good faith without accepting anything in return.

Question? List some reasons people are hesitant to give care to an ill or injured person? Hint: Think barriers to action.

GOOD SAMARITAN LAWS (CONT.)

Answer. Presence of Bystanders, Uncertainty about the victim, nature of the injury/illness, fear of transmission of disease, fear of doing something wrong and fear of being sued.

Good Samaritan laws usually protect citizens who act the same way that a “reasonable and prudent person would under the following conditions.

Good Samaritan Law

1. Move person only if person’s life were in danger.

2. Ask a conscious person for permission, consent, before giving care.

3. Check person for life-threatening conditions before giving care.

4. Call 9-1-1.

5. Continue to give care until trained professionals arrive to take over.

SCENARIO

You are jogging through the park on a warm sunny Sunday afternoon. The park is jammed with people walking, playing ball and having picnics. As you are jogging, someone stops you to ask if you can help a child that fell off the swings. You rush over to find the young boy crying, loudly, and has cuts on his knees. How will you respond?