Category Archives: Education

4 Types of Decontamination Procedures

What is Decontamination?

The use of decontamination refers to applying a process or the treatment in ‘removing contaminants‘ from a person and/or object such as medical equipment or surrounding surfaces. This ensures safe handling, and prevention and/or exposure of cross-contamination, and/or transmission of contagions.

Today’s society has laws in place for many businesses to protect the Public from being exposed to the many types of microorganisms known as virus’s, and bacterial germs. This is to prevent outbreaks and maintain our health. This is known as ‘Public Health‘ services and their main goal is to ‘safeguard and improve the health of the community as a whole.‘ (Miller-Keane, Encyclopedia & DIctionary of Medicine, Nursing, & Allied Health)

Let’s go forward and read on about the ‘behind the scenes’ efforts that are taken by medical professionals and supporting staff to do their best to bring about our full recovery.

Different Decontamination Uses

Sterilization: using a physical or chemical procedure to destroy microbes including highly resistant bacterial endospores (Listeria, Staphylococcus, Streptococcus).

Disinfection : using a liquid chemical to destroy all pathogenic microorganisms with the exception of bacterial spores on work surfaces and equipment. Effectiveness will depend on ‘what‘ was on or near the surfaces and equipment.

Antisepsis: applying a liquid antimicrobial chemical aka a germicide to skin or living tissue to inhibit or destroy germs.

Cleaning: use of soap and water and scrubbing by (gloved) hand or brush. A first step before sterilization or disinfection of equipment to help reduce germs.

medical facilities use sterile environments

Methods of Decontamination

Heat Sterilization – Wet and Dry

Wet Heat : Using steam at various temperatures and specific periods of time, is used for sterilizing physical objects and equipment. It’s viewed as rapid and dependable against many organisms, and bio-hazard wastes for decontamination.

Dry Heat: a method that is less efficient, and needs longer periods of time with higher temperatures. It is safer to use on impermeable surfaces such as glass without worrying about germs being insulated.

Liquid Disinfection

Liquid disinfectants are used in different concentrations for decontaminating surfaces and liquid wastes. Various types of liquids are used for disinfecting, and only those confirmed to eliminate germs are used.

Effectiveness will depend on types of organisms, concentrations, time, and other environmental conditions. There is no one specific liquid disinfectant that’s effective with all germs and conditions.

Vapors and Gas

A method delivering excellent disinfection used in closed areas and controlled environment of temperature and humidity. Applied to areas with bulky and sensitive equipment, biosafety storage cabinets, rooms, buildings and associated air supply systems.

Radiation (ionizing and non-ionizing)

Ionizing

Ionizing radiation will destroy microorganisms, cause tissue damage, kill cells, and cause cancers.

Non-ionizing

Ultraviolet (UV) radiation (includes our Sun) effectively eliminates most germs in air, water and on surfaces. Germs must be directly exposed to the UV light. Poor results rise when dirt, dust, and shadows can hide germs.

UV radiation is used to reduce levels of airborne microorganisms and maintain good air. It’s important to note there are dangers to human health when exposed for long lengths of time, and unshielded, to UV light.

Learning to Add to our Self-care

Our last two years with Covid-19 has given us a glimpse into medical practices that have been learned and followed by all medical professionals, for decades. Masks help block airborne germs entering our nose and mouths, handwashing helps sanitize our hands that touched surfaces that may be contaminated with germs of one kind or another.

We have learned one step in our self-care to promote ‘decontamination‘ which helps prevent bringing it home to immunocompromised family members.

soap and water = simplest & easy cleaner

Germs are opportunistic and I guess, predatory. They look for an environment similar to ours, a source of warmth, water and supply of nutrients. Our own bodies deliver such an environment, and will do it’s best to defend us; a fever to ‘sterilize‘, runny nose, vomiting, and diarrhea to ‘expel‘ germs but we may still get overrun.

Our hospitals provide us with a secondary ‘protective‘ environment. They deliver care, a sterile environment, medicines to strengthen our own immunity and promote wellness, while simultaneously keeping our environment clean and healthy, for you, themselves, and others.

I truly hope you have a deeper understanding and higher view of our health professionals, and the care they take to ensure you have the best environment for a quick recovery.

Let’s celebrate the ability of us Humans to learn about health, and our environment. It’s not perfect but every new discovery gets added to providing better care, to our future generations.

Learning in Motion

Sterilizing medical tools with autoclave

Extra Reading Resources

Tips for Keeping COVID-19 Out of Your Home

Disinfectant Overkill: What are “Quats” and why are they a problem?

How-to Create and Practice an Emergency Exit Plan

How might climate change affect the spread of viruses?

I hope you found this article informative and gained some new insight. Please feel free to Share your comments, and share your new found knowledge with others. Use the ‘Ask A Question’ form to make a request on a topic of your own interest. It is FREE to subscribe to my RSS feed.

Article (C)2022 – current, AIC| An Informal Cornr, all rights reserved. Ginsense writes articles on business skills, development, health, science, technology and society and enjoys advocating for independence, security and a better world for all of us.

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12 Free Science and Business Research Resources

free research resources, an informal cornr

I have great admiration and respect, for people with mad skills in professional career fields, rich (not the money type) life experiences and immense knowledge.

Mind you, one can also have a higher education but be an absolutely horrible person, and disrespect, or prey upon others. We’ll go hide over yonder, if we see one of those, okay?

Bloggers Write Experience, Education and Skills

Do you ever wonder about bloggers? They too are educated in various fields, and  develop partnerships with others, educated in different fields. They work together, and  provide awesome content for your enjoyable consumption.

Many businesses hire Bloggers to provide content too. Feed the brain! Arrgh! (that growl sound) braaain! Remember that movie?

Bloggers do a lot of reading about their niche topic, or, as in my case, read about more than one niche, then make an outline, organize it into a fabulous and coherent, epic post, all for you. Speaking for myself, it feels good to know, somebody may find my post, helps overcome a problem, or two, and maybe, learn something new and talk about it with confidence.

The 12 Free Science and Business Research Resources

science of chemistry
world of chemistry

The journey to delve into the 12 free online resource sites that can be quite helpful, for research purposes whether for personal, business, or education purposes, are as follows;

PubMed

Described as, ‘a free full-text archive of biomedical and life sciences journal literature at the U.S. National Institutes of Health’s National Library of Medicine (NIH/NLM)’ and which even Canada references to this site too.

Research Buzz

A site packed with news about search engines, digital data archives, online databases, and allows you to subscribe, for your own specific information. A great tool for research add-ons.

Information Please

A resource site for parents, educators and librarians to find factual answers to questions about ‘current events, science, government and history‘. Tools such as, a thesaurus, almanac, dictionary and encyclopedia are offered too. This site is considered, very kid friendly to visit, for their own research needs.

Plants Database

A database about ‘vascular’ plants, found in the US. It contains information about plants and is focused on land conservation. Information such as species abstracts, plant characteristics, symbols and more, can be found at this site and they encourage academic, educational and general use for research studies.

The Free Library

A huge library of classic literature but also ‘has been expanded to include a massive collection of periodicals from hundreds of leading publications covering Business and Industry, Communications, Entertainment, Health, Humanities, Law, Government, Politics, Recreation and Leisure, Science and Technology, and Social Sciences’.

Open Access Scientific Reports

A huge repository of free scientific reports and journals in science and technologies. They seek to ‘expand the reach of research data in the real time, which in turn helps in furthering the research for research scholars, students, libraries, educational institutions, research centers and industries and able to benefit from open access to research data’.

Free Tech Books

A site that offers a growing database of ‘free/open access online computer science books, lecture notes and textbooks’. Technologies are always changing therefore important to stay updated with the latest and greatest. Who doesn’t want to be tech savvy?

math science
math and science formulas

Retail Wire

A great business site that offers free insight into ‘expert opinion and advice covering the most dynamic trends and issues affecting the retailing industry’. Refer to this site when looking for news about business.

SBDC Clearinghouse|SBA Small Business Help

A public access, business research site, for Small business and entrepreneurs. They do research for their Small business development network and offer their research results at this site.

World Economic Forum

A business resource that offers insights about ‘the foremost political, business and other leaders of society to shape global, regional and industry agendas’. They have insightful reports about entrepreneurship and business from around the world.

Nations Encyclopedia

A resource site that offers insightful reports about a nations ‘economy, economic sectors, agriculture, poverty, and wealth, working conditions, imports, exports, manufacturing, and much more’.

Trade Pub

A fantastic free subscription B2B resource, that touts their ‘research library is #1 resource for professionals to access free research, white papers, reports, case studies, magazines, and eBooks’. Once you join, you can subscribe by email or download their app.

Research is a Skill

I strive to help others ‘learn that ordinary can grow into Extraordinary’. Set backs can happen to anybody but tomorrow, is a new day and we can make changes. Do I actually read all this stuff? Well, I spend a lot of time surfing online around these sites, or in my email, reading information from these sites, gathering notes.

All this activity and reading, helps to inspire spin-off topics, or strengthen current topics, provide concrete evidence. I prefer to present you with facts vs faux news. Besides, knowledge explored together makes for great moments, don’t you think?

Learning in Action

Extra Learning Resources

Alison 
GED Testing Service  

Coursera

I hope you found this article informative. Please feel free to leave your comments, and Share this article, with your Friends. Use the ‘Ask a Question’ form and request a topic of your own interest, for the next Post.

 An Informal Cornr, all rights reserved. Ginsense writes articles on business skills, development, health, science, technology and society and enjoys advocating for independence, security and a better world for all of us.

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Explore Apprenticeship programs for Employment

apprenticeship job strategyLearn diverse skills in apprenticeship programs

Apprenticeship programs pays for more than just skills and job training. Searching and settling on any one career choice, can be daunting when hopes, expectations and aspirations are high. Some do not even consider Trade Apprenticeship programs and not realize these offer a more direct route and career. Are you aware that a Certified apprentice can also achieve a high pay grade?

Today’s age has gone high tech and so have the requirements for training and skills in a apprenticeship program. An apprentice will learn skills and knowledge, to help further and complement their existing literacy, mathematical and analytical abilities but also build their creative, problem solving, and coordination in dexterity, stamina, improve hand-eye coordination and balance, for their chosen trade.

learn earn in Trades

The skills and traits will refine their abilities, to perform complex duties such as reading blueprints, effects of weather conditions, weight, distances, volumes, pressures and myriad of other influences and factors, that may affect over all work, equipment and production efforts.

The education of an apprentice will learn theory in the classroom setting and then apply this knowledge, directly in a work environment, learning with his tools and equipment plus personal safety under the supervision of a Certified Journeyman. He or she, will learn the most up-to-date applications and techniques next to learning the use, of the latest high technology equipment, in all area’s, to master the technical skills for their trade.

Statistics and reports show Need for Skilled Trades people

A couple interesting side notes that have been learned in reports and statistics ;

– the unemployment rate for those with college or trades training skills, has been lower, compared to University graduates

– An apprenticeship program allows one to ‘earn while they learn’

– not have a major post-secondary education debt upon graduation

– statistics have shown that the skilled trades person can earn a salary at estimates of 3.1% higher, than the national average of all Canadian careers combined

– employers are already having and will have, difficulty finding qualified staff with technological, trades skills training.

solar technician

Apprenticeships have been around for centuries. It is classroom and on-the-job training and requires a input of time and specific hours. Upon graduation and an award, of a, Certificate of Qualification in ( your chosen ) Trade, the apprentice will be able to have a good future, may face being in high demand, receive good pay, option to travel, and lower rates of unemployment.

Available Student Assistance

Apprentice programs may also offer grants to offset costs for the student. These may only be awarded after a specific length of time in the program but recommend that you learn through the education providers or student counselor, all available information.

Apprenticeship programs can be found at our colleges, employment centers and/or specific apprenticeship training sites, and government training web sites too. Take a look online and see what you can find that may be of interest.

The delivery of an apprenticeship program is 20% in-class learning and 80% on-the-job training. A training program offers the opportunity to learn a great skill, career, good salary, and is available to both men and women. There are over 200 trades to choose from in Canada and fall within these categories :

– Construction, electricians, carpenters, plumbers, pipe fitters, welders, heavy equipment operators, painters.

– Manufacturing, tool & die makers, industrial mechanics (millwrights), precision metal fabricators.

– Transportation, automotive service technicians, aircraft structural technicians, heavy duty equipment technicians, automotive painters, fuel/electrical systems technicians

– Service, horticultaralists, chefs, florists

Pay Range in Trade careers

The pay rate for a skilled Journeyman/woman, can range from $12 – $40.00+ per hour. A skilled tool and die maker in Windsor can earn a average up to $100K per year. One may start off as a Journeyman but move into positions as supervisors, management, instructor, and/or start their own business. It is a career that can go places and at your own pace. The following is a list of some trades and their pay rates :

– Crop Duster Pilot, up to $80K

– Commercial diver, $74K

– Plumber, pipe fitter, or steamfitter, $63,500

– Water Vessel Pilot, $51,200

– Millwright, $50,900

– Certified Electrician, $50,400

A few people don’t relish the idea of a whole day in the class room and prefer a more direct route to learning, earning and lucrative employment. Statistics and news reports have stated, that the baby boomers are aging out, and, their retirements, will open doors to the trade careers.

blueprint reading

Forecasts are showing, a great need for skilled trades people does exist. A bonus! knowing a trade skill can offer a boost to bring home extra earnings, and, keep up with rising living costs.

Learning in Motion

Extra Reading

Careers in Trades

Canadian Apprenticeship Forum

Ontario College of Trades

Apprenticeship Search

How long would you wait, for your plumber, electrician or carpenter, to make repairs? A shortage of qualified trades people, lengthens the time of arrival for a repair person. Go ahead, bring a friend along and visit your local employment centre or college, and, explore the Apprenticeship programs they have available, and, when the next classes begin.

I hope you found this article informative and gained some new insight. Please feel free to leave your comments and share your new found knowledge with others. Use the ‘Ask a Question’ form to make a request on a topic of your own interest. It is FREE to subscribe to my RSS feed.

 AIC| An Informal Cornr, all rights reserved. Ginsense writes articles on business skills, development, health, science, technology and society and enjoys advocating for independence, security and a better world for all of us.

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