Bloodborne Pathogen Training
Bloodborne Pathogen Training
Episode 47
DOC’s Facilities offers online janitorial training for safety on Bloodborne pathogens. This training is frequently dismissed as non-critical for frontline cleaners. In our experience, this attitude is rarely a disregard for employee safety. It’s more often due to at least two situations that are common in the commercial cleaning industry:
- Assuming that contacting blood will only happen in healthcare facilities
- The simple economics of cleaning staff turnover
Let’s address these one at a time.
Assuming that contacting bloodborne pathogens will only happen in healthcare facilities
Some of the most common situations for front line cleaners are basic office cleaning. These involve:
- Dusting and cleaning table lamps
- Cleaning Desks
- Cleaning Restrooms
- General cleaning for Reception Areas
- Counter and tabletop Cleaning in Kitchenette & Breakrooms
- Emptying trash
If none of that jumps out at you as a potential bloodborne pathogen risk, you’re not alone. The reality is that almost all of them COULD be. Now that is a little extreme. But the simple act of emptying trash cans exposes front line cleaners. Coughing and blowing your nose and throwing that tissue away places droplets into the trash. Mopping spit or vomit produces the same (but a more obvious) risk of exposure to bloodborne pathogens.
And then there’s the restroom. More specifically the feminine hygiene receptacles.
The simple economics of cleaning staff turnover
The commercial cleaning industry can often feel like a “race-to-zero”. For less-informed customers, cleaning is seen as a necessary and low-level service. In client businesses where this attitude prevails, that means “get cleaning as cheap as you can”.
On average, cleaning staff turn-over can range from 75% – 300%. That means that many companies spend as little as possible to train their staff. The funds to train have to come from somewhere and few employers or clients accept the necessity until something negative happens.
Training Your Cleaners
Commercial cleaning company owners and those in Environmental services understand. We don’t expect most people to change their minds. The general assumption is that you don’t have to be “the brightest bulb” to be a cleaner. Regardless of our opinion on that, it is an industry where you can start with little education. And it’s also one where you can excel and have a tremendous, positive impact on hundreds of people when you gain knowledge and perform your tasks well. That is also why DOC’S focuses on many classes, including our Bloodborne Pathogen Training.
Cleaning for Health
As a lead training organization for cleaning companies and employers with cleaning staff, our singular focus is “Cleaning for Health”.
Most often this statement is interpreted as maintaining a clean environment for employees, customers and visitors entering a facility. However, we hold that this applies to cleaning & environmental staff, first. Your knowledge of safety practices for the proper use of PPE (Personal Protective Equipment), cleaning equipment and cleaning materials will set the bar for your ability to do the job well AND provide an excellent future for yourself in the environmental services industry.
All facilities where people are present have inherent risk of exposure. This training intends to help you mitigate the hazards of bloodborne pathogens. It’s designed with a testing & grading component. This is priced to meet the needs of companies and inside teams. This training can be used as a stand-alone or as a primer for full OSHA training.
If you have questions on this bloodborne pathogen training or full staff training, please contact us online or by phone at 585-413-0574.
Ray
Joel, we’re back and we’re talking about one of the existing classes we have formatted really for cleaning company owners and their staff. How is this just so integral to operations?
Joel
Well, with the class that we’re talking about, which is the compliance for bloodborne pathogens, it’s critical in the sense that a lot of business owners do not believe that this is It’s an important piece. But whenever one of your employees is exposed to blood, and most people say, Oh, that’s hospitals, or that’s just medical facilities. And that’s not the case. In the cleaning industry, you’re exposed to blood every day.
Ray
Could you explain a situation where the average person might not think that would be the case? But is more common for you.
Joel
Every time somebody uses a lady’s hygiene disposal unit.
Ray
You know I wouldn’t even have thought of that. I guess I should have.
Joel
Well, I’m sure you don’t hang out in the ladies’ room, so I don’t expect you to maybe realize that. But our employees are exposed to blood every single day. Sure. And that’s the most common place that it’s seen. But most people, like I said, think about it as, oh, it’s just medical facilities. But our staff is constantly exposed to blood or potential of blood. In schools, kids get sick. They may throw up. Now, the idea is that it’s not necessarily a bloodborne pathogen unless there’s actually blood in the content, as in like having an ulcer or torn stomach lining or something like that. But are you going to take the time to test it? So, you act as though it is. You have people that slip and fall in lobbies and maybe hit their heads, and there’s some blood. This can happen in an office building. This could happen in a store. This could happen just about anywhere. So, you have to be prepared to be able to have your staff have some compliance training. Now, there is an OSHA class that’s out there. And you can get your OSHA 8 card. You can get your OSHA 10 card.
They’re very expensive. They’re put out by OSHA. But when you think of the cleaning industry as a whole, it’s a high turnover industry. We are required to make sure that our people are at least compliant to the HIPAA standards. In addition, most of the people that work in this industry, English may not be their first language. So, they may have some challenges with the language and understand the language and maybe don’t speak it all that great. And a lot of people also that work in this industry may not have higher education. We’ve worked on our compliance training to keep it down to a fourth to a fifth grade reading level so that our people can better understand it in the field. (Okay.) And I’ve had a couple of clients actually reach out and tell me, my gosh, this is one of the better trainings that I’ve seen for people in our industry because it’s simplified. It hits the high points, things like that, but they have to be because they’re medical terms. But really, the nuts and bolts of it end being understandable for somebody who can’t read at a higher level or is not as intricate as the OSHA training, where there’s a lot of legal jargon.
This is brought down to a level that our staff can understand and protect themselves; With sharps; With blood; How to protect themselves; What are they supposed to do first (in event of an injury); What are the proper protocols; What forms have to be filled out. So, it goes through all of those types of things that people have to understand to be compliant. Because we never know when we’re going to be exposed to blood.
Ray
We worked on this class together, obviously, to put the content, any of the images, and the copy together. My understanding is OSHA doesn’t really sanction training that isn’t theirs. But this is in prep for that, and it’s also specifically written and prepared for cleaning company owners. Just as you said, the price point’s very reachable with the understanding that you have so much turnover. It’s not a huge investment, and they will still get the understanding.
Joel
That is correct, as well as that this is supposed to be done annually. So, when you think of a company that maybe has 100 employees and the turnover rate that they may have, even if they have a low turnover rate, say, of 200%, there’s still 300 people that would need to have gone through this type of training over the course of a year. We wanted to be at a price point as well at a level that people could best understand in our industry so that at least if they came across a blood situation or a sharp situation, they are protecting themselves, they’re protecting the company, and they’re protecting other people.
Ray
For cleaning company owners and shift managers, below in the description, you’ll find a link to the Docs: Bloodborne Pathogen Training for Janitorial Employees. This course is under $30. It includes an audio version, if your staff needs assistance there. It also includes in-line testing. We encourage you to go there today and get your staff trained.
Class Link: Blood Borne Pathogens Training for Janitorial Employees
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