Hoovering ops theatre.....

Re: Hoovering ops theatre.....

Laura James — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 21:01:01 GMT

We have two hoovers - one for the cleaners that come in - for pretty much the whole building. The other one is for the nurses - for in theatre/prep room, kennels and the food preparation area. There was something in the pipleines about making us vacuum, sweep then mop theatre but nothing really came of it - most of us use rubber brushes but will occasionally use the vacuum cleaner if cleaning overnight

Re: Hoovering ops theatre.....

Emma Forde RVN — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 19:35:05 GMT

I really like the rubber broom idea as it can be washed thoroughly afterwards. Murse meeting next week and all your points will be raised!

Re: Hoovering ops theatre.....

lskm 23 — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 15:25:20 GMT

We have the same hoover for the whole practice but have a separate head for theatre along with separate rolers for the rotawasha dn a separate mop and mop bucket.

Re: Hoovering ops theatre.....

dinkyd — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 11:47:07 GMT

We are the same have seperate hoover, mop, bucket that is used only for theatre.

Re: Hoovering ops theatre.....

Nick Shackleton — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 19:13:47 GMT

We have a separate hoover only for theatre, as well as separate mop and bucket.

Re: Hoovering ops theatre.....

Kay Eminson — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 18:50:24 GMT

An interesting point which has never come into thought.

We hoover, and we only have one hoover as well.

Hmmmm maybe this may be something I bring up in our next meeting, to buy rubber brooms.......

Re: Hoovering ops theatre.....

sisterscope1 — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 16:50:18 GMT

We use a vacuum cleaner designated to the operating department, it has HEPA filtration and isn't used for vacuuming patients - have good ol' Henry for that (who's been upgraded to HEPA, lucky him).

In Russell, Hugo and Ayliffe's Principle and Practices of Disinfection, Preservation and Sterilisation it states that vacuuming of floors is the most suitable method of dry cleaning, using models with a filtered exhaust. Disturbs and distributes less dust/microbes than using a brush/broom in compared trials.

In human hospitals, wet vacuuming of flooded theatre floors used to be the recommended practice, it still is in the USA. Microfibre flat mops are the norm now which are great at picking up dirt/dust and physically removing microbes without the need for disinfectants. Another advantage is that the floors are dry within seconds.

The rubber brooms are brilliant at picking up hair though!

Re: Hoovering ops theatre.....

Caro Laithwaite VN — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 16:35:35 GMT

Those trueblood books l just finished l love the term "dustbunnies"

Re: Hoovering ops theatre.....

Sal the 1st — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 16:22:00 GMT

rightly or wrongly I banned hoovers from theatre at 2 places I worked for the following reasons

as a previous poster has already mentioned it does put a lot of dust into the air which sometimes only falls and settles once you have cleaned the surfaces,also how many times have you just finished cleaning theatre - in fact sometimes the floor hasnt had time to dry properly and that emergency op comes in. So guess where the dust is going to fall then?

Even if you have a bagless hoover I dont like the idea of what might be living in the hoover gaining access to theatre - but maybe thats just me. I am a bit simplistic in the way I think about things maybe but a machine that is used to suck up dirt is never going to be clean.

I do know places that use a hoover in theatre and dont seem to have a massive problem so I guess it is down to personal preference.

I like those rubber brooms too - niceand easy to clean and if you use the flat blade bit are great for getting excess water off the floor

Re: Hoovering ops theatre.....

Caro Laithwaite VN — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 16:13:57 GMT

I think they are to close to call. if you sweep someplace where the sun shines (a rare occurence seeing the sun) you will see all the dust that rises up and dances in the beams. With a hoover you get an inital whoomf lift but then it settles and does a much better overall than a boom.

Re: Hoovering ops theatre.....

les punton — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 15:21:32 GMT

yeah ours is rubber and its great if I put floor cleaner on and leave it to soak then scrub with the brush ..............multifunctional.

I would presume that sweeping would be best though!

Re: Hoovering ops theatre.....

Emma Forde RVN — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 15:18:48 GMT

Thanks for the hasty replies folks!

Re: Hoovering ops theatre.....

les punton — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 15:16:14 GMT

we sweep our ops room always but prep and waiting room sometimes gets hoovered sometimes gets sweeped.

Re: Hoovering ops theatre.....

Charlotte says smile — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 15:14:51 GMT

Sweeping I think is best, we have a rubber broom and it works brilliantly at not sending any dust in the air