PRINCIPLES OF ASEPTIC TECHNIC The nurses wear short sleeved uniforms with skirts at least five inches from the floor, also a cap. Large gowns are worn by nurses and doctors only when in intimate contact with patients, The sleeves of the gown extend to the wrists and are confined by rubber bands. Before entering a unit, a gown which is always kept hanging outside the unit when not in use is slipped over the uniform, and when leaving the gown is removed and the hands immediately scrubbed in a disinfectant solution.
The following rules must be constantly borne in mind by the nurses and attendants: (a) Touch nothing pertaining to the patient except with your own hands and then scrub the hands thoroughly. Touch nothing unnecessarily.
(b) Keep fingers, pencils, pens, labels and everything of that sort out of your own mouth.
(c) Wash your hands frequently and always before leaving a unit or ward or before eating.
(d) After handling a patient do not touch your face until your hands are washed.
(a) Do not allow patients to cough or sneeze in your face.
(f) If rendering an intimate service it is best to wear a gauze mask over the mouth and nose.
(g) Do not kiss a patient or allow him to touch your face.
(Ii) Do not eat anything a patient may wish to give you.
(i) Keep and use only your own drinking glass.
(j) Remember that infections are spread chiefly by contact.
(k) Never lean against the bed or furniture in the unit. (1) Always take into a unit everything required to serve the patient before becoming contaminated.
The foregoing principles are just as important in home as in hospital isolations.
Isolation in the case of biologically transmitted diseases is effective if the insect vectors are absolutely excluded or destroyed .