Instructor Resources

Chapter 6: Hygiene and Safety

Purpose of Chapter 6

For the Student to understand:

• Many germs, including viruses, bacteria, yeasts (molds) and some microscopic parasites can be transferred via water, from an infected person to a therapist or another client.
  
  
• Whether another person will be infected by these germs depends one the concentration (amount) of the germs, degree of contact with another person and health of the person that the germs come in contact with.
  
  
• The hydrotherapy room and equipment, must be cleaned properly after each treatment.
  
  
• To prevent the spread of infection from one person to another in a hydrotherapy treatment room, all surfaces (and also sheets and towels) that comes in contact with water that water that has come in contact with a client, must also be disinfected. Special attention needs to be given to hydrotherapy equipment that re-circulates water, for example in a hydrotub or pedicure footbath.
  
  
• Water is a lubricant and makes many surfaces that it comes into contact with very slippery. We floors and other surfaces in a hydrotherapy treatment room, increase the risk of clients slipping and being injured.
  
  
• Heat treatments, such as steam treatments, can make clients dizzy as they stand and try to walk. Also, hydrotub and flotation treatments can make clients unsteady as they stand and begin to walk. Precautions must be used to assist clients so that they do not fall after these treatments.

Lesson: Hygiene and Safety

Have the students read the chapter and then discuss the chapter during a classroom session. Refer to the textbook for detailed information for the discussion and teaching exercises discussed below.

• Discuss: What is meant by the term "germ"? Give examples of bacteria, viruses, yeasts and microscopic parasites that can causes disease.
  
  
• Discuss: How germs can travel from one person to another via water.
  
  
• Discuss: What is the special concern with the new strains of staphylococcus, known as MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus), that have developed a resistance to modern antibiotics and are more difficult to treat.
  
  
• Discuss: What is meant by the term "cleaning". What is meant by the term "disinfectant"? Why are both necessary following a hydrotherapy treatment?
  
  
• Discuss: What are the special challenges presented by  hydrotherapy equipment that re-circulates water and what is necessary to disinfect these systems?
  
  
• Discuss: What is meant by the term, "broad-spectrum disinfectant"? How does someone know what types of germs a particular type of broad-spectrum disinfectant kills? What is the criteria of the highest level of a broad-spectrum disinfectant? Example of a Broad-spectrum disinfectant shown in Figure 6-4 Broad-spectrum disinfectant label Link
  
  
• Exercise: Have students search the internet various types broad-spectrum disinfectants that could be use in a hydrotherapy treatment room. 
  
  
• Discuss: The nature of water as a lubricant and what safety risks it creates in a hydrotherapy treatment room and with hydrotherapy equipment. Also discuss, some to the things that can be done to reduce the safety risks from slippery floors, other surfaces and hydrotherapy equipment?
  
  
• Discuss: Why heating hydrotherapy treatments and the effects of buoyancy from hydrotub and flotation treatments can make some clients dizzy or unstable when they stand and try to walk at the end of the treatment. Also discuss what can be done to reduce the risk of clients after such treatments.
  
  
• Exercise: If your educational facility includes the ability to perform hydrotherapy treatments, apply the principles of hygiene and safety presented above in actual hydrotherapy treatment demonstrations.

Students Skills

After studying Chapter 6, as student should have greater skills and understand the hygiene and safety issues that are related to hydrotherapy. The student should also have the skills for working with the special hygiene and safety issues found in hydrotherapy treatment room and with hydrotherapy equipment.

Suggested Reading

Playing It Safe: Milady’s Guide to Decontamination, Sterilization, and Personal Protection: Chesky, S., Cristina, I., Rosenberg, R., (1994). Playing It Safe: Milady’s Guide to Decontamination, Sterilization, and Personal Protection. Albany, New York: Milady Publishing.
This a short, detailed book that covers the principles of hygiene in salon, spa and wellness center setting.

REVIEW QUESTIONS

1. Discuss the special conditions associated with hydrotherapy treatments that create special hygiene issues? Answer: In a hydrotherapy treatment, water often comes into contact with the "entire" surface of the human body. This water then comes into contact with the hydrotherapy equipment and often surfaces of the room, including the floors. It is possible for a large number of germs to be found in a single drop of water and many germs can survive and thrive in water.

2. What are the three main categories of disease causing germs? Answer: Virus, Bacteria, Parasites

3. What are the three steps to follow for hygiene in hydrotherapy rooms and treatments? Answer: Cleaning, Disinfecting, Drying

4. What is the difference between cleaning and disinfecting?  Answer: Cleaning removes products, dead skin cells, etc., from the hydrotherapy equipment and surface of the room and also kills some germs. A disinfectant is designed to kill virtually all germs that can cause infection.

5. What is broad-spectrum disinfectant? Answer: A broad-spectrum disinfectant must be registered with the EPA and is high effect at kill germs, including the TB bacteria.

6. What is considered to be the most difficult bacteria to kill? Answer: The TB bacteria.

7. What are two things that can be done to help clients from slipping on wet surfaces in a hydrotherapy treatment room? Answer: Drying the surfaces and  using slip-resistance floor mats and also assisting clients and they exit hydrotherapy equipment after a treatment and walk in the room. 

8. Why might a client feel dizzy after a heating treatment? Answer: Blood pressure may be lower which makes it more difficult for the body to supply blood to the brain when the client stands and walks.

9. Why does hydrotherapy equipment that re-circulates water over the human body require added hygiene measures? Answer: Bacteria and other germs can rapidly grow in water that remains in the equipment, including pipes, if the equipment is not properly disinfected.

10. Why should Vichy and Swiss shower equipment have scald protection and pressure balancing? Answer: This prevents the therapist or client from accidentally increasing the water temperature to  level that could injure the client.