Survey of UK nurses reveals gaps in patient equipment decontamination
This article was originally published in Clinica
Executive Summary
A high proportion of UK NHS nursing staff with responsibility for decontaminating equipment in hospitals have reported a significant lack of facilities and training. According to a survey by the Royal College of Nursing (RCN), 37% of such nurses do not have a dedicated space on their ward or department for cleaning or decontaminating patient equipment; 32% said they used a bathroom instead. 21% of all nurses said they lacked a dedicated area for storing clean equipment, and used the bathroom for this purpose. Of the 70% of surveyed nurses who said they were responsible for cleaning or decontaminating equipment, just over a third said they had not received formal training on doing this. The survey was unveiled at the RCN congress, which takes place this week.