RACGP - Skin disinfection (asepsis) (2025)

Infection prevention and control guidelines

4. Aseptic technique

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Infection prevention and control guidelines
1. Table of contents
2. About these guidelines
3. Transmission of infection in health care
4. 1. Principles
  1. Overview – Principles
  2. Risk assessment and planning
  3. Education and training
  4. Clinical handover
  5. Antimicrobial stewardship to reduce opportunities for antimicrobial resistance
  6. Managing risk in special circumstances
  7. Resources and references
5. 2. Hand hygiene
  1. Overview – Hand hygiene
  2. Role of hand hygiene in infection prevention and control
  3. When hands must be cleansed
  4. Facilities for hand hygiene
  5. Hand-hygiene products
  6. Hand hygiene technique
  7. Hand care
  8. Jewellery, nail polish and artificial nails
  9. Hand hygiene with glove use
  10. Hand hygiene when specific pathogenic microorganisms are present or suspected
  11. Other factors affecting practice hygiene
  12. Hand hygiene for patients
  13. Resources and references
6. 3. Personal protective equipment
  1. Overview – Personal protective equipment
  2. General principles of personal protective equipment use
  3. When to use personal protective equipment
  4. Applying, removing, and disposing of personal protective equipment
  5. Extended use of personal protective equipment
  6. Case study
  7. Resources and references
7. 4. Aseptic technique
  1. Overview – Aseptic technique
  2. Principles and terminology
  3. Standard aseptic technique
  4. Surgical aseptic technique
  5. Skin disinfection (asepsis)
  6. Resources and references
8. 5. Levels of precaution
  1. Overview – Levels of precaution
  2. Standard precautions
  3. Transmission-based precautions
  4. Contact tracing
  5. Case study
  6. Resources
9. 6. Staff screening immunisation and infection management
  1. Overview – Staff screening
  2. Principles for managing staff immune status
  3. Screening
  4. Staff immunisation policy and procedures
  5. Vaccinations for health professionals
  6. Health professionals with a blood borne virus
  7. Staff disease surveillance
  8. Resources and references
10. 7. Sharps
  1. Overview – Sharps
  2. Responsibilities for sharps management
  3. Safe sharps handling practices
  4. Safety-engineered medical devices
  5. Reducing risk of infection after a sharps injury
  6. Resources
11. 8. Exposure to blood and other body substances
  1. Overview – Exposure to blood and other body substances
  2. Blood-borne viral infection risk
  3. Strategies for preventing exposure to blood and body substances
  4. Responsibilities for managing exposure to blood and body substances
  5. Summary of steps for managing an exposure incident involving a staff member or patient
  6. Documentation of the exposure
  7. Resources and references
12. 9. Cleaning, laundry and waste management
  1. Overview – Cleaning, laundry and waste management
  2. Policy and responsibilities
  3. Work health and safety issues
  4. Scheduled cleaning
  5. Cleaning agents and methods
  6. Cleaning reprocessing area
  7. Cleaning after contamination by blood or other body substances (spills)
  8. Cleaning tools
  9. Monitoring of cleaning
  10. Laundry
  11. Waste management
  12. Toilets
  13. Case study
  14. Resources and references
13. 10. Reprocessing reusable medical devices
  1. Overview – Reprocessing reusable medical devices
  2. Choosing whether to reprocess or use disposables
  3. Policies and procedures
  4. Risk assessment
  5. Summary of steps in reprocessing medical devices that require sterilisation
  6. Staff education, training and competency assessment
  7. Initial treatment at point of use
  8. Managing the area for reprocessing for reusable medical devices
  9. Cleaning processes before sterilisation
  10. Rinsing and drying (after manual cleaning)
  11. Sterilisers
  12. Disposable materials used in the sterilisation process
  13. Preparing the load for sterilising
  14. Loading the steriliser
  15. Running the sterilisation cycle
  16. Unloading the steriliser
  17. Documenting reprocessing including steriliser cycles
  18. Documenting performance data for other equipment
  19. Storing sterilised reusable medical devices
  20. Monitoring each sterilisation cycle
  21. Record keeping
  22. Checking steriliser function
  23. Steriliser maintenance
  24. Step-by-step guide: simple first validation
  25. Step-by-step guide: complex validation
  26. Validating reprocessing procedures
  27. Tracking reusable medical devices for patient tracing
  28. Offsite sterilisation services
  29. Reusable medical devices on loan
  30. Reprocessing of reusable medical devices used off-site
  31. Reprocessing of specific categories of medical devices
  32. Resources and references
14. 11. Disease surveillance and outbreak response
  1. Overview – Disease surveillance and outbreak response
  2. Response procedure
  3. Staff education
  4. Monitoring for threats
  5. Notifying relevant authorities
  6. Contact tracing
  7. Practice response to threats
  8. Patient-specific precautions
  9. Receptionists’ infection prevention and control kit
  10. Critical infection prevention and control incidents
  11. Resources
15. 12. Planning a practice: design, fit-out, equipment and consumables
  1. Overview – Planning a practice: design, fit-out, equipment and consumables
  2. Building design and fit-out
  3. Equipment
  4. Choosing consumables and reusable equipment
  5. Resources and references

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Relevant standards
Acknowledgements
Disclaimer
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Application

Agents used for skin asepsis in healthcare practices (‘skin disinfectants’) kill, and temporarily reduce, microorganisms on the skin.

Their use is appropriate for reducing the number of resident microorganisms on the skin in the following situations:

when the level of microbial contamination is high (such as when managing open or contaminated wounds)
when persistent antimicrobial activity is desired (such as during invasive procedures or surgery)
before intravascular or joint or body cavity penetration
before skin puncture (egacupuncture)
before intrathecal injection or similar (essential)
for identified vulnerable groups before intradermal, subcutaneous or intramuscular injection (non-essential for non-vulnerable groups).

Practices must follow the guidance of the Australian immunisation handbook on skin hygiene when preparing the person receiving the vaccine.

Skin disinfectants may compromise wound healing.⁵

Agents used in skin asepsis (skin disinfectants)

Agents sold as skin disinfectants are regulated by the Therapeutic Goods Administration and are labelled according to their appropriate use. They must be used according to the manufacturer’s directions.

Skin disinfectants must be appropriate to the site. Some disinfectants are irritant to mucous membranes (egalcohol) and some cause nerve damage (egchlorhexidine can cause sensorineural deafness if used in the middle ear).

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