Infection prevention and control (IPC): Lessons for everyday complex care practice

Infection prevention and control (IPC) is essential to delivering safe, high-quality care.

Although healthcare associated infections are often linked to hospitals, infection can also spread in people’s homes through hands, equipment, bodily fluids, contaminated surfaces and respiratory droplets.

People receiving complex care may be particularly vulnerable because of impaired immunity, respiratory conditions, wounds, enteral feeding, urinary catheters, tracheostomies or invasive ventilation.

An infection may cause rapid deterioration, avoidable hospital admission, serious illness or death.

Our care workers must therefore apply standard infection control precautions during every care visit or shift.

 

Effective hand hygiene

Hand hygiene is one of the most effective way to interrupt the chain of infection (NHS England, 2026).

At My Caring, staff follow NHS National Patient Safety Agency (NPSA) hand hygiene advice.  Hand washing should take 15-30 seconds and follow this process:

• Wet hands and wrists
• Apply sufficient liquid soap
• Rub palms together
• Rub each palm over the back of the opposite hand
• Rub palm to palm with fingers interlaced
• Clean the backs of fingers against opposing palms
• Rub each thumb rotationally
• Rub fingertips rotationally in the opposite palm
• Clean around and underneath the fingernails
• Rub both wrists
• Rinse thoroughly
• Dry with a disposable towel and use it to turn off the tap

 

Our staff are taught to use the NPSA hand hygiene advice when entering and leaving a client’s home, before and after direct contact, before clean or aseptic procedures, after exposure to blood or bodily fluids, after touching the client’s surroundings or equipment, before handling food or medication, between different care activities, and after removing PPE.

Soap and water must be used especially when hands are visibly dirty and when caring for someone with vomiting or diarrhoea, as alcohol-based hand rub is ineffective against some organisms like Clostridium Difficile.

Staff must also comply with bare below the elbows standards (no long sleeves), with short, clean nails and no wrist jewellery, multiple rings or rings with stones.

 

Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)

PPE is selected to protect the client and staff member against anticipated exposure. For routine care, staff put on PPE in the following order:

Hand hygiene → apron → mask → eye protection → gloves

PPE must be removed carefully to avoid cross contamination:

Gloves → apron → hand hygiene → eye protection → mask → final hand hygiene

Gloves and aprons are changed between clients and between different procedures involving the same client. Gloves never replace hand hygiene.

 

Equipment, environment and staff responsibilities

Reusable equipment including hospital beds, hoists, slings, suction equipment, thermometers and other monitoring devices must be cleaned between uses, when dirty, weekly, or according to the manufacturer’s instructions.

Frequently touched surfaces including door handles, switches, worktops and bed controls require daily cleaning.

Blood or bodily-fluid spillages must be managed immediately using the correct PPE, household cleaning products and local procedure.

We have devised a number of cleaning checklists for staff to complete, which is evidence to our commissioners that clients are kept safe and their environment is kept as clean as possible.

At My Caring, all complex care workers complete online IPC training and have their competency assessed during practice by our Clinical Lead.

Staff must follow the client’s individualised IPC care plan and risk assessment, report PPE or equipment shortages, and promptly escalate signs of infection to the office, clinical lead and/or appropriate professional, so treatment can commence.

Staff are instructed not attend work with vomiting, diarrhoea, a high temperature or when too unwell to work.

Ideally staff must report symptoms before the shift so that a risk assessment and safe cover can be arranged.

Attending work while infectious could expose clinically vulnerable clients to serious harm.

Consistent hand hygiene, correct PPE use, effective cleaning and responsible reporting protect clients, families and colleagues.

PC is not an occasional task – it’s everyone’s responsibility during every episode of care.