The Safe Bag Technique Training for Home Healthcare Workers equips providers with essential skills to prevent cross-contamination between patients and environments. Participants learn how to select and organize necessary tools, follow proper hand hygiene, and establish a clean, safe workspace in diverse home settings. By mastering these techniques, healthcare workers can reduce infection risks, protect patient safety, and maintain professional standards in home care. This training ensures they are prepared to implement best practices that safeguard both themselves and those they serve.
What You Will Learn:
- The essential tools needed for implementing safe bag technique
- Steps for organizing the bag before and after each patient visit
- Proper hand hygiene practices
- Techniques for setting up a safe, clean workspace in a variety of home environments
Details:
Course length: 45 minutes; CME: 0.75
Languages: American English
Key features: Audio narration, learning activity, and post-assessment.
American Medical Compliance is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) to provide continuing medical education to physicians. Our Continuing Medical Education (CME) program is committed to enhancing the knowledge, skills, and professional performance of healthcare providers to improve patient care outcomes. Through high-quality educational activities, we aim to address the identified educational gaps and to support the continuous professional development of our medical community. American Medical Compliance designates this activity for a maximum of 0.75 AMA PRA Category 1 Credits. Physicians should only claim this credit for their complete participation in this activity.
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Introduction to Bag Technique in Home Healthcare
What Is Inside?
This bag should have an outside pocket and a zipper for access to the inside of the bag. The outside component should contain:
- Hand rub
- Hand soap, and
- Paper towels
The inside of the bag may normally contain a:
- BP cuff
- Stethoscope
- CPR mask
- Disposable gown
- Mask, and
- Goggles
This would vary from agency to agency.
When providing care for a person at their home, the home care aide will bring necessary items with him or her in a bag. There are important safety precautions regarding these bags. Proper hand hygiene is paramount before entering the bag. Always go into the bag with clean hands.
Place hand washing supplies and hand gels in an outside compartment if possible. Perform hand hygiene after touching the patient’s skin and items in the patient’s vicinity, as well as after removing gloves. Carry a supply of barriers, wax paper, disposable pads, or plastic bags. Avoid newspaper and paper towels as they may wick water up and may transmit germs to the bag.
This course teaches healthcare providers to organize and maintain home healthcare bags to prevent contamination and protect patients. They learn to keep hand hygiene supplies accessible, use clean hands before opening the bag, and follow infection control best practices. Training covers selecting barriers to protect equipment and avoiding materials that spread germs. By mastering these techniques, providers reduce cross-contamination, uphold hygiene standards, and deliver safer care.
Regulatory Standards for Bag Techniques
For the routine handling of contaminated laundry, minimum agitation is recommended, to avoid the contamination of air, surfaces, and persons. The risk of environmental contamination may be reduced by having personnel bag or contain contaminated linen at the point of use, and not sorting or pre-rinsing in resident care areas.
Although most home care agencies implement policies and procedures to prevent transmission of organisms, the current approach is based on the adaptation of the 1996 Guideline for Isolation Precautions in Hospitals 1 as well as other professional guidance. This issue has been very challenging in the home care industry and practice has been inconsistent and frequently not evidence-based.
This course teaches healthcare providers how to handle contaminated laundry and control infections in home care. Providers can learn to minimize agitation, bag soiled linens at the point of use, and avoid sorting or pre-rinsing in patient areas. This training covers inconsistencies in infection control, including the debated use of barriers. By applying evidence-based techniques, providers enhance patient safety, reduce infection risks, and improve home care standards.
Preparing for a Home Visit
The nursing bag is transported from patient home to patient home and may serve as a vehicle for transmitting microorganisms, including multidrug-resistant organisms (MDROs).
This transfer of microorganisms occurs by virtue of the bag’s contact with the staff’s hands and the bag’s contact with environmental surfaces in the patient’s home.
When selecting a nursing bag to purchase for transporting patient-care equipment and supplies, if possible, select a bag that has an exterior surface material of a nonporous, noncloth/canvas/fabric material (e.g., vinyl or leather) for ease in cleaning and disinfecting the bag’s exterior surfaces.
Only a hard nonporous surface can be disinfected by wiping the surface, and that is why a vinyl material is recommended instead of cloth.
This course teaches healthcare providers how to prevent the nursing bag from becoming a vehicle for microorganism transmission, including multidrug-resistant organisms (MDROs). Providers will learn how microorganisms transfer through contact with hands and environmental surfaces, as well as best practices for selecting, cleaning, and disinfecting nursing bags. By applying these infection control measures, healthcare providers can protect themselves and their patients, ensuring safer home care environments.
Post-Visit Bag Technique Procedures
Semi-critical items contact mucous membranes or non-intact skin. In home care, these items include:
- An oral thermometer and
- Respiratory therapy equipment
Semi-critical devices should be managed the same way regardless of whether the patient is known to be infected with HBV, HCV, HIV, or M. tuberculosis. Some semi-critical items that may come in contact with non-intact skin for a brief period of time (i.e., bed side rails) are usually considered non-critical surfaces and are disinfected with intermediate-level disinfectants. When using an oral thermometer from the nursing bag, use a probe cover to reduce the level of microbial contamination and disinfect the thermometer after removing the probe cover with ethyl or isopropyl alcohol (70-90 percent).
Non-critical patient care items may include a:
- Blood pressure cuff
- Laptop computer keyboard
- Stethoscope
- Nursing bag taken into the home
- Pulse oximeter, etc
Virtually no risk has been documented for transmission of infectious agents to patients through non-critical items when they are used as non-critical items and do not contact non-intact skin and/or mucous membranes.
This course teaches healthcare providers how to properly disinfect and manage semi-critical and non-critical patient care items to prevent infection transmission in home care settings. Providers learn to disinfect semi-critical items like oral thermometers and respiratory therapy equipment, regardless of a patient’s infection status. By following these infection control practices, healthcare providers protect patients and maintain high hygiene standards in home care environments.
