Meet Margi: Her Advice May Save Your Life

TO combat the coronavirus, we’ve pulled out the big guns and used the bat phone to seek assistance from Margi Evans.

I was fortunate to work with Margi in health for several years and learnt an enormous about infection control.

Margi is a clinical nurse consultant in infection control, she trains health professionals and is an absolute doyen in her field.

Margi Evans, clinical nurse consultant in infection control, is sharing her expertise with Sconeites.

Last year Margi retired, but she is now back at work, working extra long hours, doing what she does best for the public health unit and continuing to advise health professionals and the public.

She invited me to her lecture today at the Sydney University, where she was educating nursing students on the coronavirus and how to practice infection control to protect themselves and their patients.

The refresher, reinforced everything she had taught me over the years and was the shot in the arm I needed to know we can combat the virus well, if we just do better at the basics.

I was her model for putting on personal protective equipment and as I was taking off the PPE, I was reminded why it is during those steps that 30 percent of health staff who become infected, is because they don’t take off their PPE diligently, it looks simple but when you are out of practice you really need to think carefully.

The simplest of things need to be done properly, diligently, every time to break the chain of infection and this applies to everyone when we wash our hands, touch surfaces and adhere to social distancing.

Margi asked why I was still writing and doing issues management, suggesting it was the perfect time to run a business in infection control?

I explained I had a bigger picture and was in a position to help educate a whole community on infection control, our best and only line of defence as a community.

I took lots of notes on what frontline staff have learnt so far about the new virus and more importantly, all of the small steps we need to take to protect ourselves and each other.

Each day I will publish information on how to reduce the chance of infection and Margi has been kind enough to be available on her bat phone when we need.

How well we do as a community solely depends on how well we do in practicing infection control.

If health professionals can always improve at infection control….we can all, always improve.

So let’s begin…

Hand washing the same in any language:

Next time you wash your hands, think about this video. Ideally you CAN try using paint to see what spots you may be routinely missing on your hands and it is a great way to teach children how to wash their hands well: