The house cleaning and janitorial industry has a high potential for exposure rate in the daily work. Caution is required in every step of the cleaning duties for everyone, not just select workers. This is a concept everyone should be actively aware of in every job. Having a background working with children and adults in various environments has expanded my understanding the dangers of exposure. Taking safety for granted is not acceptable in the working environment. My first house cleaning job resulted  in finding a syringe containing an unknown liquid. Thankfully the syringe was properly capped in the refrigerator, but precautions were still implemented. This situation has also resulted in a new working standard that the house is walked and observed during a consultation to identify any potential hazards to ensure proper preparedness for all workers prior to beginning work. 

Steps of exposure prevention include making sure we have our own wounds properly covered prior to wearing our personal protective equipment. Contact with bloodborne pathogens has become quite common through moving personal items including shaving razors (manual and electric), linens, reaching into drawers and cabinets, as well as emptying all trash cans regardless of the location. People typically utilize trash recepticles that are close in proximity, providing opportunity for exposure throughout a home. Lack of knowledge about a person's health places us in this industry at high risk and we must always take precautions by using our personal protective equipment at all times. 

We need to ensure we are sanitizing and disinfecting our equipment regularly to prevent cross contamination between environments and individuals. Prior to opening my business I taught proper handwashing techniques in child care centers due to high sickness rates. I startedmy lessons with a "pop quiz" for proper techniques including hand scrubbing time. I lost count of how many adults did not know the proper techniques and time (typically 5-10 seconds of rubbing their hands together is what I saw). After teaching the proper techniques, it was reported to me the school staff and children saw a huge surge in attendance and less "out sick" calls. This is just an example of how something as simple as proper handwashing can be valuable in exposure prevention. I always make sure my staff have plenty of gloves, eye protection, and face masks to help with prevention. I provide shoe covers as well, to make sure contamination does not occur from my cleaners' shoes. 

Taking the time to educate our employees is such an important role to prevent disease exposure, keep staff working, and lower the transmission rate of deadly diseases. Something as simple as picking up a used tissue can cause exposure if precautions are not implemented. This training is the utmost importance specifically for my business because I am working with my local homeless shelters to help put people back to work. My goal is to utilize this employment to assist people in finding an employment direction, understand safety procedures, and educating them on healthy behaviors to boost them up in life and healthier future for them and their families.