Safeguarding Minor

Safeguarding the minor in a hospital setting

Who is a minor? “A minor is any person under the age of eighteen” (Children’s First, 2011). What is safeguarding? “Safeguarding is best thought as an umbrella term for a number of different, but related actions that ensure the well-being of children and young people, all of which may be encompassed within the professional activities of nurses and midwives” (Powell, ch.1, p.3, 2007).
In my assignment I am going to discuss the importance of safeguarding a minor in a hospital setting but most importantly I am going to discuss environmental safety in relation to a minor. Areas of the environment I will discuss will include maintaining a clean and safe environment for the patient, infection control,
Hand hygiene is the single most important procedure for preventing infection. There are five moments of hand hygiene which were introduced to minimize the transmission of pathogens and the incidence of healthcare-associated infections (HCAI) (Royal College of Physicians of Ireland, 2015). The five moments when hand hygiene must be completed are; before touching a patient, before a clean/aseptic procedure, after bodily fluid exposure risk, after touching a patient and after touching patient surroundings (World Health Organisation (WHO), 2009). The use of gloves does not replace the need for hand hygiene; the hands must be cleaned before and after using gloves. Gloves are considered as an item of person protective equipment (PPE) as well as aprons/gowns and eyes, nose and mouth protection. The aim of wearing PPE is to protect the Healthcare worker (HCW) from contact with potentially harmful bacteria or viruses which could be harmful to the HCW or could be passed on to the minor patient. Inappropriate use of PPE could result in cross infection. Another way to safeguard the minor is to have single-bed rooms/isolation rooms in hospital settings. These single rooms prevent a patient with an aerial-spread infection from infecting others, or maintaining positive pressure to protect an immunocompromised patient from airborne pathogens in nearby rooms. (Ulrich and Zimring, 2004). In order to ensure correct safeguarding of the minor in relation to hygiene, all standard precautions must be followed to reduce the risk of transmission of blood borne and other pathogens from both recognized and unrecognized sources. Along with infection control another important way to safeguard the minor is to reduce medication errors on the wards. Medication errors include prescribing errors, administrating errors and dispensing errors (American Society of Hospital Pharmacists, 1993). To minimise and prevent