Things that nurses do – Part 3 – Sterilisation

Sterilisation is an integral part of what nurses are required to do to keep the surgery running at its optimum. After the patient is seated and prepared for the dentist to come in the instruments are removed out of the sterile pouches in front of the patient. The pouches, with critical instruments that are invasive or are hollow, have a unique bar code. This code is scanned into the patient’s notes. This is for our records as well as for the patients benefit. We are more than happy to explain the process of how we keep infection control to the highest standard.

Each instrument is scrubbed with detergent and then put into the ultrasonic for cleaning and shaking off any debris. After the instruments are rinsed under hot water and dried, they are then “bagged” in separate pouches and put into the autoclave. All the handpieces are oiled and are also “bagged” separately. An indicator with a special marker is placed under the pouches in the autoclave. This marker must change to a certain colour to confirm that sterilisation has been achieved. The autoclave has to reach a certain temperature and pressure to make sure that all germs and viruses are annihilated. Once the cycle is finished the instruments are taken out of the autoclave and a unique bar code is placed on the pouches scanned into the computer under an autoclave record section. The bar code contains the date, the autoclave unique cycle number, the nurse’s number responsible for the current task and a code for the instruments in the pouch.

The cycle is a “Pass” if the special marker changes to the “success” colour. This is stapled to the print out from the autoclave that shows the cycle number, temperature and pressure and time throughout the cycle. This is then stored for validation purposes. The bar code from the patient file can then be placed in the computer search engine to find the cycle number. The records of the physical proof to show that the cycle was a “Pass” are based on cycle numbers. Even cycles that failed are record with the cause of failure e.g. power failure.

The autoclave is regularly checked that it reaches the required temperature pressure and is tested and serviced every 6 months.
These are only a few things that are done in the busy life of a dental nurse.

Bye for now!!!!

Sue

Next in the series: Things that nurses do – Part 4 – Infection Control – Cross Contamination

Next week: Denture Repairs – Item no’s 761-769