Guidelines

The laboratory is a workplace where students prepare for the practice in the real world. Keeping lab climate clean and safe is recommended through the following:

Good Personal Habits:

1. Develop the habit of keeping hands away from the mouth, nose, and eyes to prevent self-inoculation with infectious agents.
2. Wear gloves goggles and masks or face shields when needed while working in the Lab.
3. Practice frequent hand washing, especially after removing gloves and other protective wear, before leaving the laboratory, before eating or drinking, after using the lavatory, and when hands are visibly contaminated with blood, body fluids, or tissues.

Laboratory Dress Code

1. Wear proper attire and protective clothing. Laboratory coats, jackets, or aprons must be worn when performing lab tests. Keep lab coats buttoned while in the laboratory. Do not wear exposed or “dirty” protective clothing outside the laboratory.
2. Laboratory coats must be worn at all times in the Laboratory, regardless of the activity. This includes, but is not limited to, lecturing in the laboratory area, studying in the laboratory outside of scheduled laboratory sessions, and Laboratory coats must be fully buttoned must be clean and in good repair.
3. Hair must be clean and groomed. Long hair and beards must be tied back in such a way as to avoid contamination and interference with laboratory equipment.
4. Shoes should be comfortable, enclose the entire foot. No open-toed, open-heeled, perforated, mesh. Flat-soled shoes should be worn to prevent possible serious injuries from falls.
5. Never eat, drink, chew gum, apply cosmetics, or adjust contact lenses while in the laboratory.

Infection Control

Standard Precautions represent minimum infection prevention measures that apply to all patient care. Standard Precautions include guidelines on:

1. Hand hygiene
2. Use of personal protective equipment
3. Respiratory hygiene and cough etiquette
4. Safe injection practices
5. Safe handling of potentially contaminated equipment or surfaces.

Needle Safety:

1. All drawers with needles should be locked at the end of a lab session and containers, bags or equipment with needles should also be secured.
2. Needles provided for practice of injection should be used in the lab only when the teaching assistants or faculty are present for assistance. Students must demonstrate safety precautions while utilizing needles during practice as instructed in class.
3. Needles should never be recapped after use. Used needles are to be disposed in the Sharps containers provided throughout the lab space.
4. Needles and other sharp objects must not be discarded in the trash or left out openly in the lab at any time.
5. Sharps containers must only be filled to 3/4 level or to the manufacturer’s and do not try to press sharps down to make more room.
6. Do not place anything sharp inside a yellow hazardous waste bag as it may cause injury.
7. Do not bend/break needles before discarding them
8. Injection practice will only occur on the manikins or practice injection pads provided in the lab.

Physical Space:

1. All cabinet doors should be closed when not in use.
2. The work spaces, floors, beds and desk areas should be kept clean.
3. Any misconduct occurring in the lab should be reported to the Lab Coordinator by the concerned faculty and lab custodian.
4. Malfunctioning equipment should be reported to the Lab Coordinator.
5. Laboratory doorways should be accessible at all times.
6. The lab supplies should not be used to provide medical treatment for students, staff, or faculty.
7. Unauthorized personnel are not allowed in the labs at any time. Injury to unauthorized personnel in the lab will not be considered the responsibility of College of Nursing.

Health Care Waste Management:

All hazardous waste should be contained in a YELLOW case or container with the appropriate logo.

• Infectious waste – Yellow, bearing the phrase “Hazardous waste” Arabic & English, with Bio-Hazard Logo.
• Sharps waste – Yellow, bearing the phrase “Sharps waste only” Arabic & English, with Bio-Hazard Logo. Sharp waste refers to waste that contains sharp items such as medication glass vials, needles, scalpels, lancets, razors, broken glass or any other sharp object that has the potential to puncture or cut or puncture through the body.
• All non-hazardous waste will be contained in a BLACK case or container with the appropriate logo.