Teacher Education Center

Understanding Bloodborne Pathogens video script

Hello. My name is Marcia Rossi. I am the principal at the Thomas Metcalf School. And I am Amy Coffman. I am the assistant principal at Thomas Metcalf School. And I am Lynn Kennell. I'm a faculty member at the Mennonite College of Nursing at Illinois State and I'm a nurse.

Marcia: We are here today to help you understand bloodborne pathogens. Lynn, what are they?

Lynn: Well, bloodborne pathogens are microorganisms, and they can be viruses or they can be bacteria that are transmitted through the blood and can cause disease. Some examples of some bloodborne diseases would include malaria, syphilis, brucellosis. Those are some you may not have heard of quite as much. Then, we have two others that we are going to focus on today.

Marcia: Amy, we have OSHA requirements for understanding bloodborne pathogens in classrooms and in schools. Can you help us understand that, please?

Amy: Occupational Safety and Health Administration is a federal agency which means we are mandated by law to follow the requirements.

Marcia: And Lynn, could you define, please, the bloodborne pathogens which OSHA mandates that we must become familiar with as educators?

Lynn: Sure. The two that we are most focusing on today are Hepatitis B virus. That is a virus that causes inflammation of the liver. The symptoms that a patient can exhibit with hepatitis can be subtle sometimes. You can have stomach pain and fever, a variety of symptoms, but it can cause a life threatening disease. The other disease that we want to focus on today is the HIV virus, which is Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) that can lead to the syndrome called AIDS. HIV can lie dormant and the patient could not have or individual could not have the symptoms and still have the virus growing within their body. Ultimately, it can lead to the AIDS disease which is a syndrome, Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome.

Marcia: Amy, OSHA tells us that we must take universal precautions. What is that?

Amy: Well, universal precautions are preventative strategies. Anyone working in a school needs to treat all exposure to materials as if they were infectious. For example, always wearing gloves when dealing with blood and fluids, and hand washing after cleaning up an incident.

Marcia: And Lynn, I see that you have a kit. Please demonstrate.

Lynn: Sure. I brought along a few of the most important pieces of equipment that we have that are called personal protective equipment. As Amy said the important thing to remember is to be sure that you always wear gloves. So you should have access to latex gloves and you want to wear those. Once you have them on, you always want to inspect them and make sure that there are no holes in them and they are intact. If there are any, then you should discard them and replace them with new gloves. Once your gloves are on, that will help to protect your skin. Your skin is a barrier, but anytime you have any injuries or lacerations or scratches, then you have broken skin and the risk of infection is greater. And so you want to clean up the incident with your gloves on. Then, when you are done cleaning it up, you want to be sure that you remove the gloves as carefully as possible. If you can, you can invert the gloves so that you contain all of the contaminated particles on the inside of the glove and that will help to protect you as well. Then you can discard the gloves easily.

Another piece of equipment that you can wear is either goggles or a face shield and mask. The goggles you wear will protect your eyes from splashes. This face shield is one that we use very often at the hospital that will protect your eyes, your nose and your mouth. We put it this way (Lynn demonstrates the use of the mask) and tie it around your head in this way and it protects your eyes and your mouth if necessary. You can also wear an apron or a gown which will protect your clothes and ultimately your skin from any exposure. So in those situations, if you know there are a lot of body fluids you could be exposed to, you would want to wear all three; gloves, goggles or a face shield, and an apron to protect yourself.

Marcia: Amy, can you tell us, please, about an incident when you had to take universal precautions?

Amy: Well, daily we have incidents. We work at a school and kids get hurt. They may have skinned their knee on the playground or they may be coming into the office with a bloody nose. In both of those simple examples we had to take universal precautions and wear gloves.

Marcia: And Lynn, what about school nurses? What must school nurses do to ...

Lynn: One of the most important things that school nurses do is to be the source of authority for the OSHA Bloodborne Pathogen Standard to all the teachers. They should be involved in educating the teachers on bloodborne pathogen precautions and they should have all the equipment available to teachers as well in their offices so that if a teacher would need something, it would be readily accessible to them to protect them.

Marcia: And Amy, what are the state and federal mandates for teachers and other school personnel regarding bloodborne pathogens.

Amy: Well, yearly as a teacher or a staff member working at a school, you are required to watch a video. Then the nurse usually has extra training. But this is so important that there is a sign up stating that you have seen that every year.

Marcia: And Lynn, when a member of a school is exposed to a bloodborne pathogen, what are the rules? What are the precautions that must be taken in order to protect themselves?

Lynn: It does make sense that there could be an incident in which a person doesn't have an opportunity to get gloves on, in an emergency situation. If that would ever happen, careful hand washing, lots of running water and use of a soft antibacterial soap would be essential to help to protect that person's skin. So, careful hand washing is the first key and most important thing that the individual can do. If they will have any kind of a splash into their eyes, then it would be especially critical to flood the eyes and rinse them very carefully with water for 15 minutes. And that length of time is very important to adequately rinse out the eyes. And so careful hand washing and careful rinsing of the eyes with running water is really important in protecting the individual.

Marcia: And Amy, what are the rules to follow in cleaning up the mess?

Amy: Well, if there is glass, first you will want to sweep that glass up. Then rather than picking that up with your hands, you want to sweep it up and throw it away. Then any border materials covered in blood, you will want to cover them with rags or with paper towels and saturate them with about a 10 percent bleach solution. You leave that there for about 10 minutes before you begin to clean up the area. After you have finished cleaning the area, you want to take off your gloves and wash your hands. It is important that you do not eat, drink, smoke, apply make up or lip balm, or touch your contact lenses if there is any likelihood that you have been exposed.

Marcia: And as the school administrator is there anything else that you would like to add to this, Amy?

Amy: Well as school personnel and as a teacher or a staff member or an administrator in the building, we are not told who is a bloodborne pathogen in our building. So it's very important that you take those universal precautions.

Marcia: And Lynn, is there anything else that you would like to add to the material we have covered today?

Lynn: I think the last note I would make is that prevention is always the most important way to prevent disease and we do have a Hepatitis B vaccine available at the present time. It is a series of three injections. It is mandated for all newborns at this time. I know that we have students in the nursery that give to babies soon after birth, then at two months, and then again at six months of age. So, it's a three series vaccine. Adults can also get that same vaccine. You get it on this day, then two months later, and after a total of six months of the first injection. The Hepatitis B vaccine is helpful preventatively, but it can also be used if an individual will get exposed in an emergency situation in the school. If they were given the vaccine very quickly, very soon after the incident had occurred, then it would have a very high rate of effectiveness in protecting that individual from contracting the disease. So prevention is really good and an important area of practice.

Marcia: Now you will be taking a quiz and to help you pass that quiz there's a flier (pdf). Please spend some time reading it because as you have heard all of us say, this happens everyday in every school. Good luck on your test!