The podiatrist has a legal obligation and duty of care to ensure that Essay

The podiatrist has a legal obligation and duty of care to ensure that practice protocols adequately protect themselves and service users from the risk of infection. discuss this statement - Essay Example Globally, infection control is a changing area in medicine and medicinal practices. This is given the advancement in technology, the regulatory changes, and even microbial evolution (Simmers 2004, p. 67). This paper will try and examine some of the guidelines that reflect some of the best practices involved in preventing infection and cross-infection, and how these practices may set the target for infection control in podiatry. In order for the podiatric practice and practitioners to ensure safety among all service users and staff, it is vital for all the involved parties to have infection control principles that guide their everyday operations. These include work practices that have been adopted to achieve a specific level of infection control, which apply to the service users and staff. This is regardless of their perceived level of risk. By ensuring that standard precautions are properly conducted, it should be easier to ensure that all infections and their transmission can be prevented. Some of the standard precautions in the podiatric practice involve; proper hygiene practices, correct aseptic techniques, use of appropriate personal protective equipment, apposite protocols of waste disposal, and proper practices for cleaning and maintenance of the podiatric health center (Simmers 2004, p. 73). In any medical practice, hand washing may be the most crucial and important measure of infection reduction or minimization. The washing of hands must be done by the podiatrist and staff before and after the handling of any patient, or any activity that might increase the chances of risk infection. All hand washing amenities must be present in all consultation areas and these may include; hand basins and apt products that may not affect the outcome of the next patient consultation or meet (Kane, Schiefman & Vickers 1992, p. 37). The technique involved in hand washing also matters significantly, which involves; the duration and the quantity and type of