Training rules of procedure

These rules apply to everyone taking part in a course delivered by PRIMA
LAB ACADEMY, wherever it is held.
They are given to the participant before the course, repeated at the start
of the session and displayed in the practical rooms. Accepting them is a
condition of taking part.

The timetable is stated on the joining instructions. Reception opens thirty
minutes before the start of the first day.
Punctuality is part of the training. Practical workshops take place in
fixed groups: someone arriving late disrupts the workstation of several
people, not only their own.
Participants sign the attendance sheet at every half-day. That
signature establishes their presence. It determines the attendance
calculation and, in turn, whether the workshop is validated.
Any absence, foreseen or not, is reported to the office as soon as
possible.

Participants attend in professional dress: long-sleeved laboratory coat,
closed shoes, hair tied back, nails short and unvarnished. Rings and wrist
jewellery are removed before any practical work.
The personal protective equipment required — gloves, and depending on the
station, eye protection and a mask — is provided by the Academy. **Wearing
it is compulsory** during practical sequences, and is not left to the
participant's judgement.
Access to the practical room may be refused to anyone whose dress does not
allow them to work safely.

Hand hygiene is performed at the points taught: before contact, before an
aseptic procedure, after a risk of exposure, after contact, and after
contact with the surroundings.
Wearing gloves does not remove the need for hand hygiene.
Sharps are never re-sheathed. Their safety device is activated
immediately after use, and they are disposed of without delay in the
container provided, which stays within reach of the workstation.
The workstation is cleaned and disinfected before and after use. Any
biological spillage is dealt with immediately, according to the procedure
taught.
Drinking, eating and applying make-up are forbidden in practical areas.

The equipment provided is that of a working laboratory. It is used in
accordance with instructions, and put away after use.
Participants report any fault, any expired item and any item whose
packaging looks compromised, rather than using it.
Any deliberate damage, or damage resulting from a clear breach of
instructions, engages the responsibility of the person who caused it.

️ Essential article. Read before enrolling.
Some workshops, in particular those of the phlebotomy pathway, involve
venous blood collection performed in rotation between participants.
Each participant acts at least once as the collector, and at least once as
an observer or a simulated patient.
This arrangement is pedagogically necessary: no one learns to puncture a
vein without puncturing one.
It requires of the participant:

1. Written, informed, prior consent. A form is given to them with their

joining instructions; they return it signed before the course begins.
Without that document, taking part in the sequences concerned is
refused.

1. **Telling the trainer, before the sequence, of any personal

circumstance** that makes the procedure inadvisable — a clotting
disorder, anticoagulant treatment, a history of vasovagal syncope,
pregnancy, known fragile veins, or any other reason. This disclosure is
confidential and needs no explanation in front of the group.

1. Respecting another person's refusal. A participant may refuse to be

punctured without having to explain. That refusal does not prevent the
workshop from being validated: the roles are rearranged.
Consent may be withdrawn at any time, including during the sequence,
without justification and with no effect on validation.
Procedures are performed only in the presence and under the direct
supervision of a trainer. The number of attempts per participant is limited
according to the procedure taught; beyond that, the trainer takes over.

A blood exposure incident — needlestick, cut, splash onto a mucous membrane
or broken skin — is an emergency.
Immediate action:

1. Do not make it bleed. Wash with soap and water, rinse.
2. Antisepsis: contact time of at least five minutes with a suitable

antiseptic. For a splash in the eye, rinse thoroughly with saline or
water for at least five minutes.

1. Alert the trainer immediately, however slight it appears.
2. Seek medical advice without delay, ideally within four hours, to

assess the risk and decide on any prophylaxis.

1. Written report of the incident, recorded by the Academy.

The full protocol is displayed in the practical rooms and presented at the
start of each session. No incident is played down, and no participant is
held at fault for reporting one: it is silence that is at fault, never the
report.

Discussions during the course concern real professional situations. What is
said there stays there.
Participants undertake not to disclose any named or identifying information
about a patient, a colleague or an institution, whether they raised it
themselves or heard it from someone else.
They likewise undertake not to pass on, outside the course, what they
observed about another participant during practical sequences — the state
of their veins, a difficulty encountered, a physical reaction.
No photograph or video is taken during practical sequences without the
express agreement of everyone visible and of the trainer.

Mutual respect is the rule. The course brings together different
backgrounds and different levels of experience; no one is judged on where
they start.
Discriminatory words and conduct, harassment in every form, and
stigmatising remarks are prohibited — in particular about physical
appearance, which the modules on difficult veins address explicitly.
Bringing in or consuming alcohol or psychoactive substances is forbidden.
Anyone whose condition does not allow them to take part safely is kept out
of practical sequences.
Telephones are silenced and put away during practical sequences.

A participant may be excluded from the course, immediately and with no
refund, if they:

• endanger the safety of another participant, of a trainer or of

themselves, through a deliberate breach of instructions;

• perform an invasive procedure on a person who has not consented to it, or

who has withdrawn their consent;

• conceal a blood exposure incident;
• behave in a way that makes it impossible for the group to continue.

Exclusion is decided by the trainer or the teaching management, and
notified in writing with its reason. The participant may submit their
observations within eight days.

Any difficulty encountered during the course is reported to the trainer or,
if the participant prefers, directly to the teaching management in writing
at contact@primaacademy.org.