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What Is A Trauma Cleaner And What Do They Clean?
Trauma cleaners are a little bit different from other cleaners. While most of us have encountered regular commercial cleaners at our offices, shopping centres and other public places, these types of day-to-day situations don’t typically require the sort of heavy-duty cleaning done by a professional trauma scene cleaner.
So what differentiates specialist trauma cleaners from everyday commercial cleaners, and when should you think about hiring one? We’ll explore this in greater detail below.
What Is A Trauma Cleaner?
A trauma cleaner is a trained and qualified specialist cleaner who has additional skills and knowledge on how to safely clean up and remediate biohazards and infectious waste.
With trauma scene cleaning, using a regular household mop, bucket and cleaning chemicals to clean up a trauma scene just won’t do. The nature of trauma scene cleaning requires the sanitising, disinfecting and remediating of contaminated areas, which requires specialist cleaning equipment and chemicals.
Good trauma cleaners aim to prevent the spread of disease through carefully handling biohazards to avoid cross-contamination. By ensuring all biohazards have been fully removed and decontaminated, trauma cleaners can return places to a safe and habitable state once more.
What Do Trauma Cleaners Clean?
Trauma cleaners are often tasked with cleaning areas where an accident, death, blood spill or crime has occurred. Due to the nature of their role and the presence of biohazards, trauma cleaners need to be careful and thorough to ensure their own safety as well as those around them.
Trauma cleaners can undertake a varied range of cleaning services including:
- Ambulance & emergency vehicle cleaning
- Blood spill clean up
- Police & prison cell clean up
- Biohazard cleaning
- Crime scene cleaning
- Forensic cleaning
- Industrial accident clean up
- Unattended deaths, suicide & human decomposition clean up
- Road and traffic accident clean up
Special Skills Required By Trauma Cleaners
Being a trauma cleaner requires certain skills, training and personality traits to effectively carry out their role.
Here is a list of ideal skills every trauma cleaner should have:
- Strong stomach – to be able to work around blood and biohazards without feeling overly nauseous.
- Bio-recovery skills – knowing how to effectively clean and dispose of dangerous biohazards
- Blood borne pathogen handling – knowing how to be safe when cleaning up blood spills
- Using Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) safely and effectively
- Being physically fit and able to handle long hours of physical labour
- Having the ability to work long, irregular hours – trauma cleaners often work around the clock and are on call 24/7
- Emotionally strong enough to handle the tough, emotional demands of trauma cleaning
- Compassionate, professional approach to the job
- Team player – great communication skills and ability to work as part of a team
Why Should I Hire A Professional Trauma Cleaner?
There are a multitude of reasons why people should not attempt to clean up a trauma scene on their own.
Reasons to avoid a DIY trauma scene clean up (and hire a professional trauma cleaner instead) include:
- Danger – trauma scene cleaning can pose safety issues (to both the cleaner and other people nearby)
- Safely handling dangerous bloodborne pathogens and biohazardous materials requires specialised training and knowledge
- No family member or victim of a crime should have to relive the trauma all over again by returning to a crime scene and having to clean the area themselves
- You may not have the correct PPE, cleaning equipment and supplies to adequately and safely sanitise and decontaminate the area
- Trauma scene cleaning is not for the faint of heart! You need to have a strong stomach for unpleasant smells and sights
When Should I Call A Professional Trauma Cleaner?
Whenever you’re faced with the prospect of having to clean up a trauma scene, just pick up the phone and put in a request for your local trauma cleaner National Trauma & Crime Scene Cleaning (NTCSC) to assist.
With over 30 years of experience in nationwide trauma and crime scene cleaning, you know you’re getting the very best service at National Trauma.
Our team are specially trained and experienced to take on the arduous task of cleaning up any trauma scene. And we’re always here for you 24/7 whenever you need us to take on the emotional and physical burden of a tough trauma scene clean up.
If you’re ever in doubt about getting in touch, just call us any time – day or night. We offer obligation-free quotes and can be at your doorstep in no time when you need us the most.