Part 2: Working At the Dr. Peter AIDS Centre | Craig's List of 565A Course Work

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Welcome to Part 2 of the Contractor Education Program at the Dr. Peter AIDS Centre.

This program is intended to give you a basic introduction to situations that might come up when you are working on our site.
We expect that you will continue to learn how to use this information when you are working at the Dr. Peter Centre.
Our staff are trained to give ongoing on-site support in these areas.

Part 2 is divided into three sections that must be completed in this order:

Bio-hazardous Materials
Privacy
Working Around Our Residents

You need to complete all three sections and the final quiz in order to get the Certificate of Completion that gives you access to the Dr. Peter work site.

We estimate it should take about one hour to finish.

How to navigate Part 2

Each of these sections will be presented in the same way:

Read the information
Complete the multiple-choice quiz at the end of each section
You need to get all the answers right before you can move on to the next section
You can try as often as you want
If you get the wrong answer, you will be taken back to the information section where you can look up the information.
After you have checked the information, click on the “Click here when done” button and you will be taken back to the question you were working on.
When you finish each quiz, you’ll get a code that allows you to advance to the next section

When you’ve completed all three sections, there will be a final test that will ask you to combine everything you’ve learned in Parts 1 and 2

When you’re done all this, you will advance to the Conclusion of the course, where you will get the Certificate of Completion and instructions for how to report for work.

Support

If you have questions about the material or problems accessing this site, you can get support from Dr. Peter staff by clicking on the ‘Help’ button for contact information

1. Bio-hazardous Materials

We take your safety seriously, and it’s important to understand the risks and realities of working in areas with the risk of communicable disease transmission.

While it’s unlikely that you’ll ever be in danger of disease transmission as a result of your work, a solid understanding of this topic will keep you safe.

At the end of this section you’ll know

Some important information about communicable diseases
What the potential risks are in these areas
What practical actions can you take to keep yourself safe and minimize your risk.

After you have read the material, you will do a 10-question multiple choice quiz to test your understanding.

You need to get all the answers right before you can move on to the next section.

(This information comes from WorkSafe BC. If you want more information, you can find it by clicking here)

Part 1 - Definitions

1. What do HIV, Hepatitis B and C have in common?	They are all caused by viruses and are infectious.
2. How do they spread?	The virus exists in the blood of the infected individual. Some of their blood or some body fluids must enter your bloodstream.
3. How can this occur?	Although exposure can take place during sexual activity unprotected by condom and the sharing of needles, the common methods of work related exposure are the splashing of infected blood on non-intact skin or mucous membranes and the puncturing of the skin by needles or other sharp objects.
4. What do we mean by non-intact skin?	Any break in your own skin which is nature’s ‘protective wrap”. This can include fresh cuts, hangnails, nicks and abrasions. Skin entry can also occur through rashes, chapped skin, eczema, dermatitis and weeping or open sores.
5. What are mucous membranes?	For occupational exposure, the mucous membranes of significance are the tissues lining the eyes, nose and mouth.
6. What do we mean by exposure?	Any circumstance where blood or other potentially infectious fluids come in contact with non-intact skin, mucous membranes or subcutaneous tissue (tissue underlying the skin)

Part 2 - Risks

What are the actual risks of infection following an exposure to infected blood or body fluids when caused by a needle or sharp object puncturing the skin?	It varies by disease: 3 in 7,000 for HIV Up to 10 in 100 for Hepatitis C Up to 30 in 100 for Hepatitis B
What about following an exposure to non-intact skin or mucous membranes?	The average risk of HIV infection is 1 in 1,000. WORK EXPOSURE ACCOUNTS FOR LESS THAN 1% OF ALL REPORTED CASES OF AIDS.
How can you tell if a person is infected with or carrying these diseases?	You can’t! Remember, many people have contracted these diseases apart from their lifestyle choices and have never used I. V. drugs or shared needles. As you cannot tell by looking at a person or assuming their risks, YOU MUST TREAT EVERY CONTACT AS POTENTIALLY INFECTIOUS

Part 3 - Precautions

1. What precautions can I take before starting to work on site?	Immunize against Hepatitis B. Cover all wounds with waterproof dressings.
2. What precautions can I take while I’m working?	Practice STANDARD PRECAUTIONS.
3. What are Standard Precautions?	A set of standardized procedures generally used within the medical profession to prevent both the contracting of diseases and the transmission to others. These precautions relate most to the Dr. Peter AIDS Centre: Wash hands after touching blood, body fluids, secretions, excretions and contaminated items regardless of whether gloves are worn. See the video on hand washing below. Unless you are wearing clean neoprene gloves and have been trained to do so, do not attempt to handle any potentially contaminated material Remove gloves without touching their outsides and dispose in plastic garbage bag. Do not break, bend or otherwise manipulate used needles by hand.
4. What if I find needles, used condoms and other potentially contaminated items?	Advise a member of staff immediately If you have come into contact with these items immediately wash your hands or any other potentially exposed skin

2. Privacy

Respecting the privacy of our residents is important to us. It’s essential that everybody with access to the building understand this, both the legal requirements and those specific to the Dr. Peter AIDS Centre.

The Dr. Peter Centre is regulated by BC privacy laws called PIPA (Personal Information and Privacy Act). The Dr. Peter Centre also has our own policies around the protection of our residents’ privacy.

At the end of this section you’ll know

What kind of information is considered private
What you need to do to keep information private
When you can disclose private information

After you have read the material, you will do a 10-question multiple choice quiz to test your understanding.

You need to get all the answers right before you can move on to the next section.

Part 1 - What is Private Information?

Examples of private information you might come across in your work here are:

Hearing private conversations between staff, or between staff and residents or between residents
Seeing interactions between staff, or between staff and residents or between residents
Seeing medication or prescriptions
Seeing mail addressed to staff or residents
Seeing driver’s licenses or other personal identification
Having interactions with staff or residents in the course of doing your work

These examples are based on the provincial PIPA regulations. You can access the full information here: https://www.oipc.bc.ca/guidance-documents/1438

Part 2 - Privacy at the Dr. Peter AIDS Centre

In addition to the provincial regulations around privacy, the Dr. Peter Centre has our own policies which you need to be aware of. We are a close community and it might seem as though everyone shares everything with everyone else, but this is not the case. You should always be aware of protecting resident privacy and maintaining a professional approach to dealing with our clients.

Dr. Peter staff will be responsible to notify residents when work is being done in their unit
If the unit is occupied, a Dr. Peter staff member will provide access to the unit
If the unit is vacant, you will be told this and given the key
If a resident tries to engage you in conversation, you should limit it to only work-related discussion
If you do engage in a work-related discussion with a resident, you should be careful not to discuss other residents or work being done in their units
You should avoid commenting to residents on anything you see in their units—you are there to do a job and you should only discuss what is needed to do that job.
You should avoid commenting to anyone else about what you saw in someone’s unit. Residents need to feel comfortable that their privacy is respected.

Part 3 - When Can I Share Private Information and Who With?

Part 4 - Quiz

3. Working Around Our Residents

Residents at the Dr. Peter Centre may be experiencing situations in their lives which affect how they relate to other people. Managing relationships with our residents is one of our highest priorities. It is important to demonstrate compassion and support even in difficult circumstances.

The Dr. Peter Centre has a zero-tolerance policy for abusive behaviour, whether it’s behaviour of staff, residents, employees, or guests.

The best rule of conduct is to treat people the way you would want to be treated if you were in their shoes.

At the end of this section you’ll know

How crisis situations develop
How and when you can calm a difficult situation
When to get help

After you have read the material, you will do a multiple choice quiz to test your understanding.

You need to get all the answers right before you can move on to the next section.

Part 1 - The Anger Curve

Difficult interactions with anger generally follow the anger curve, shown below:

Stage	Description
Normal	Before Stage 1 and after Stage 4 is the 'baseline.' This is the person's usual personality and way of being.
Stage 1: Annoyed	The person is upset for a minute, but if you listen quietly and apologise immediately, the person will return back to their normal state.
Stage 2: Frustrated	The person is upset and your apology doesn't help. In fact they seem to be getting angrier. It will take time for them to return to normal.
Stage 3: Infuriated	The person is no longer in control of their emotions. It will take time and possibly 3rd party intervention for them to return to normal.
Stage 4 Resolution	The person begins to calm down. This is the goal for any interaction involving angry emotions.

Stage 1 Annoyed: listen calmly, apologise immediately. If the person returns back to their normal state and you can carry on with your work, the situation is resolved and there is no need to report this.
Stage 2 Frustrated: apologising doesn't work; the person continues to be angry or gets angrier. Excuse yourself and report to the shift supervisor; further apologies might make things worse at this stage. It’s better to leave and report the problem before it has a chance to get worse. The goal is to de-escalate the anger so you will be able to continue with your work. Leaving means the person will not be able to continue venting to you.
Stage 3 Infuriated: the person is no longer in control of their emotions. Usually situations won’t escalate to this point, but sometimes people have bad days and are ready to snap for the smallest reason. It is important to stay as calm as you can, excuse yourself, and report to the shift supervisor. If the person seems violent or potentially violent you can also report them to the police.
Stage 4 Resolution: the person begins to calm down. This is the goal for any interaction with our residents. Sometimes an apology can lead to a resolution, other times it may require leaving the room, and sometimes it may require intervention from a third party. A situation is resolved once the person returns to their usual baseline condition and your are able to carry on with your work.

You should not take this personally--people often are dealing with other difficult situations in their lives which make them less patient than they might usually be.

Part 2 - What to Do in A Difficult Situation

Listen to the complaint
When it’s your turn to speak, speak slowly and lower your voice—sound like you are in control and calm
Apologize if appropriate
Offer a solution if you can think of one
Be kind and professional
Don’t take it personally
Know when to disengage—if the other person is showing escalating anger, not responsive to apologies, and threatening violence or behaving violently
Notify the shift supervisor about any situation that does not return to normal after you’ve tried to resolve it yourself
Make every reasonable effort to resolve the situation
Report violations of the law to the police, including violence and threats of violence (if you think they are serious)

Example Situations:

Questions to ask	Action
1. Is there anything I can do to make this situation better?	Apologise if appropriate Offer a solution if appropriate
2. Am I or anyone else being verbally abused?	You should excuse yourself, leave and report this to the shift supervisor. Report all difficult interactions to the shift supervisor.
3. Is this behaviour interfering with my work?	You should excuse yourself, leave and report this to the shift supervisor. Report all difficult interactions to the shift supervisor.
4. Am I or anyone else in danger because of this situation?	If this situation can be resolved by the shift supervisor, you should report it to them. Otherwise report to it to the police.
5. Am I or anyone else being threatened with physical violence?	If this situation can be resolved by the shift supervisor, you should report it to them. Otherwise report to it to the police.
6. Are laws being broken?	If someone is breaking a law you should report it to the police. Examples of this include physical violence or threats.

Part 3 - Quiz

4. Final Quiz

Congratulations on getting to the final activity!

This section will test your knowledge of the information covered in in Part 1 (Health and Safety) and Part 2 (biohazardous materials, privacy and confidentiality, working with vulnerable groups).

You will be presented with a story about a situation that you could find yourself in at work. At certain points you’ll be presented with a question and several choices. You must choose the best possible answer.

It works like the multiple choice quizzes in the previous sections:

Read the question
Click on the best answer
You need to get all the answers right before you can move on to the Concluding Section for the Certificate of Completion and instructions on reporting for work
You can try as often as you want
If you get the wrong answer, you will be taken back to the information section where you can look up the information.
After you have checked the information, click on the “Click here when done” button and you will be taken back to the question you were working on.

When you complete the scenario successfully, you can proceed to the Conclusion section to get your Certificate of Completion and instructions for how to report to work by clicking the red arrow below.

When do I share information?	Who can I share it with?
1. Am I or anyone else in danger because of this situation?	If this situation can be resolved by the shift supervisor, you should report it to them. Otherwise report to it to the police.
2. Am I or anyone else being threatened with physical violence?	If this situation can be resolved by the shift supervisor, you should report it to them. Otherwise report to it to the police.
3. Am I or anyone else being verbally abused?	You should report this to the shift supervisor.
4. Is this behaviour interfering with my work?	You should report this to the shift supervisor.
5. Do I or anyone else need this information for work?	Usually you would not share information about residents or staff with your co-workers, but in the case of a health and safety issue, it might be necessary to share information with a small group of people who need it to perform their work. You should check with the shift supervisor and your employer before doing so.
6. Are laws being broken?	If someone is breaking a law you should report it to the police. Examples of this include physical violence or threats.