What is it?

Bacteria are everywhere, and some are good for us while others are harmful. That’s why minimizing our exposure to harmful bacteria when undergoing medical procedures is so important. Healthcare providers regularly use aseptic techniques to achieve this. Aseptic technique is a method designed to prevent contamination from microorganisms. It involves applying the strictest rules and utilizing what is known about infection prevention to minimize the risks that you’ll experience an infection. Common settings where the aseptic technique is used include surgery rooms, clinics, and outpatient care centers.

What is the Aseptic Technique used for?

Aseptic technique is used in various clinical settings to prevent the spread of pathogens. The primary goal of the aseptic technique is to prevent harmful organisms from spreading and causing infection.

Aseptic technique is commonly used in the following situations:
⦁ handling surgery equipment
⦁ during vaginal labor
⦁ accessing dialysis catheters
⦁ performing dialysis
⦁ inserting a chest tube
⦁ inserting a urinary catheter
⦁ inserting central intravenous (IV) or arterial lines
⦁ inserting other draining devices
⦁ performing various surgical techniques

Aseptic Technique Aspects

According to The Joint Commission, there are four chief aspects of the aseptic technique. Each plays an important role in infection prevention and includes:

Barriers
Barriers are used during medical procedures to protect the patient from contamination that can come from a healthcare worker, the environment, or both. Some examples of barriers used in aseptic technique include:
⦁ sterile gloves
⦁ sterile gowns
⦁ sterile drapes
⦁ masks

Sterile materials are those that have not touched a contaminated surface. They’re specially packaged and cleaned items that are put on in a way that minimizes exposure to germs.

Patient and Equipment Preparation
Not only do healthcare providers use sterile barriers, but they also use sterile equipment. This includes sterile instruments and equipment. Cleansing and bacteria-killing preparations are also applied to the skin before a procedure.

Environmental Controls

Maintaining a sterile environment requires keeping doors closed during an operation. Only necessary health personnel should be at the procedure. The more people present, the more opportunities for harmful bacteria to cause contamination.

Contact Guidelines
Once healthcare providers have on their sterile equipment, they should only touch other sterile items. They should avoid touching nonsterile items at all costs. To imagine these techniques in action, consider the process for inserting an indwelling urinary catheter. These catheters drain urine from the bladder. Because catheter-associated urinary tract infections (CAUTIs) are a serious health concern, inserting these requires aseptic techniques.

When a doctor inserts a catheter, he or she wears sterile gloves and opens sterile packaging that contains the catheter. The skin is prepared with a special solution. The catheter itself is sterile. The doctor takes great care not to touch the hand that advances the catheter into the urethra to any nonsterile surface. If even one part of the catheter insertion doesn’t involve aseptic techniques, a person can easily get an infection.

Aseptic Technique vs. Clean Technique

Keeping the environment as clean as possible is always important in preventing infections. However, some situations call for aseptic technique while others call for clean techniques. Clean techniques are important for all healthcare providers and their patients because they prevent infections on a daily basis.

Examples of clean techniques include washing hands and applying clean gloves when needed. A person’s surroundings are kept as clean as possible, but “sterile” items or techniques aren’t being used.

Clean techniques are commonly used in the following situations:
⦁ administering an injection
⦁ emptying a urinary catheter drainage bag
⦁ giving a bed bath
⦁ inserting a peripheral IV (an IV in a smaller vein)
⦁ removing a peripheral IV line
⦁ removing an indwelling urinary catheter

Healthcare providers learn both aseptic and clean techniques as part of their training. The goal of the aseptic technique is to eliminate germs entirely. The goal of the clean technique is to reduce the number of germs whenever possible.

Aseptic Technique at Home

While your home isn’t likely a surgery center, there may be a time when you or a loved one may require aseptic technique. An example of this could be a sterile dressing change for a wound.
It’s recommended that wounds with a high risk of infection be dressed with sterile materials. To change a sterile dressing, a person needs sterile gloves and a special dressing change kit or supplies.
It’s important to note that proper aseptic techniques require training. If you or a loved one requires a sterile dressing change, a healthcare specialist should demonstrate the techniques and have you practice them before doing them at home.

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