Biohazard Waste

[NurseMom1972, RN]

How do you dispose of bloody tissues from a nosebleed? In the hospital and I have always disposed of them in the plastic lined trash bin.

Of course, the teachers are freaking out. I have shared the following with them, but that doesn't seem to appease them.

**Remember that under OSHA, you can generally dispose of “contaminated” waste (Items that are simply contaminated with small absorbed amounts of blood or OPIM) in regular plastic lined trash containers.

Any other thoughts on how to help them understand that every person does not have Biohazard bags at home for their soiled bandages, pads, tampons and tissues, therefore, we don't have them at school?

[nmr79]

I also use the regular bin. It's emptied daily. If I have a particularly bad one, I will have the bin emptied/changed after the episode, if it's early in the day. I will sanitize any surfaces that got blood on them, but yeah, I'm not too freaked about bloody tissues.

[ruby_jane, BSN, RN]

After a bad vomit I will double bag the thing and take it out of the trash can, then walk it myself to the dumpster (or set it down for later if I can).

Tiny soiled nosebleed kleenexes??? Perhaps one could double bag. Or perhaps one could just encourage her to simmah down now.

[nmr79]

Oh yes, vomit gets double-bagged, and I get rid of that myself, mainly because I don't want to smell it while I'm waiting for someone else to deal with it!

[CanIcallmymom, BSN, RN]

I mean...what would these teachers do if they had a nosebleed at home? Call crime scene cleanup? What about menstruation? It seriously baffles me sometimes. Even when I worked in the hospital, we were instructed to only use the biohazard for items that were "saturated" with blood... And regular trash for items with small amounts of blood.

As others have said, I use my regular plastic lined trash can. If there's vomit, I double bag it and ask facilities to come take it away for smell issues.

[tining, BSN, RN]

3 hours ago, CanIcallmymom said:

I mean...what would these teachers do if they had a nosebleed at home? Call crime scene cleanup? What about menstruation? It seriously baffles me sometimes. Even when I worked in the hospital, we were instructed to only use the biohazard for items that were "saturated" with blood... And regular trash for items with small amounts of blood.

As others have said, I use my regular plastic lined trash can. If there's vomit, I double bag it and ask facilities to come take it away for smell issues.

Exactly! Maybe Dexter can come and put those twine blood splatter threads up.

[guest464345]

12 hours ago, ruby_jane said:

Tiny soiled nosebleed kleenexes??? Perhaps one could double bag. Or perhaps one could just encourage her to simmah down now.

+1 for "simmah down" ?

[Flare, ASN, BSN]

I do the same as the rest of you. bloody tissues in reg trash, vomit laden trash bag get tied and put into a covered can and custodian gets called to take out.

[SaltineQueen]

Unless you can wring blood out, it doesn't need a red bag...from what I've been told.