Standard precautions: Environmental cleaning and disinfection

The health care environment contains a diverse population of microorganisms and can be a reservoir for potential pathogens. If environmental cleaning is not performed correctly, then environmental contamination can contribute to the spread of multidrug-resistant organisms and health care-associated infections. Collaboration between infection prevention and control (IPC) and environmental services (EVS) staff limits the role of the health care environment in disease transmission.

Course information

This course is also available in the following languages:

Tetun - Bahasa Indonesia -Nederlands - Հայերեն - Казақ - македонски

Overview: In this course, you will learn the role of an IPC professional in environmental cleaning and understand how cleaning and disinfection prevents contamination of the health care environment.

Learning objectives: By the end of this course, you should be able to:

• describe areas of collaboration between IPC and environmental services;
• describe the health care environment and purpose of environmental cleaning;
• identify differences between routine and terminal cleaning;
• describe standard precautions to keep environmental services workers safe;
• explain the function of cleaning agents and disinfectants; and
• describe uses of environmental monitoring in the health care setting.

Course duration: Approximately 1 hour.

Certificates: A Record of Achievement will be issued to participants who receive at least 70% on the post-test. You have an unlimited number of attempts to meet the threshold. Participants who receive a Record of Achievement can also download an Open Badge for this course. Click here to learn how.