Asepsis at dental practices

Hey!
That sounds terrible and unfair to you - having such a good attitude towards decontamination. Its such a shame that you are the only nurse in your practice that puts in effort. If i were you, id try to have a word with the practice manager as it is of paramount importance that the surgery is completely sterile. I work in a practice where i feel similar- that the other nurses don't put as much effort as they should but there's not too much i can do as we don't have a practice manager and i don't feel like the dentist would take my comments into consideration as i am technically still a trainee. Good luck and i hope improvement comes your way!

Hi everyone!

I'm appalled by the poor level of asepsis and cross infection control at a South London practice where I've been working for over a year now. The dentists really don't seem to care about cleanliness and unfortunately the same applies to most of the nurses there.

I studied dental nursing in Finland and also worked there as a nurse for a short time and I must say the level of cross infection control there is amazing. I was naive enough to think the level is the same where ever you go...

It's a busy practice so the main thing is the nurses are able to work fast, even when it means not doing your job properly and neglecting cross infection control. We don't have a washer-disinfector so the used instruments are manually cleaned. The nurses are forced to do this in a rush which adversely affects the quality of cleaning. At the end of the day there is no official time to do cleaning, washing of the instruments and emptying the bins, but the nurses are supposed to have all done when the dentists have seen and treated the last patient - quite impossible. In this situation some nurses simply rinse the instruments (don't check if they are dirty or have residues), put them on a tray and dump the wet instruments into the autoclave. Another problem is keeping the damp instruments in a box for several hours - they are supposed to be sterile!

I personally think that properly cleaned instruments are absolutely essential for the patient safety so I don't mind to do some overtime to ensure this. I always wonder what's the matter with our principal dentist who complains the surgeries are dirty yet doesn't provide the required time for their cleaning.

You might guess I'm interested in reading your views about this sort of cross infection control situation and as I haven't worked in other practices in the UK would really like to know if what I've described is common or not.