Laboratory Safety Guidelines
Never engage in pranks or other acts of
1. Read instructions carefully and thoroughly
Read instructions carefully and thoroughly at
least twice before coming to the laboratory.
Have a good grasp of what you are going to do
and what you expect to learn from each
exercise. When in doubt, ask your instructor.
2. Wear a protective laboratory gown. Do not
wear this outside of the laboratory to avoid
spread of contaminants from the laboratory
specimens.
3. Wipe your working surface before and after
each exercise with a disinfectant, e.g., 70%
alcohol or phenolic solutions.
4. Never work alone when handling hazardous
substances.
5. Do not eat, drink, smoke, use medication, or
apply cosmetics in chemical/ microbial
handling and storage areas.
6. Do not perform unauthorized work,
preparations, and experiments
7. Wash hands with germicidal soap before and
after each exercise.
8. Label cultures properly with permanent
marking pen. Always indicate the date of
subculture together with the name of the
organism.
9. Do not throw used tissues into the sink. This
will only clog the system. Throw used paper
into the waste basket. In case of contaminated
tissues, throw them into autoclavable plastic
bag or Petri dish.
10. Clean up culture spills immediately through
the following procedure. Soak up the spill
with tissue paper. Handle the tissue paper
with forceps and throw into an autoclavable
plastic bag. Flame the forceps. Pour
disinfectant over the surface; allow for about
2 minutes reaction, then wipe off with a tissue
paper. Throw tissue into the bag. If no bags
are available, throw wet tissues in Petri
dishes for discarding afterwards,
11. No pipetting by mouth is allowed for reagents
and cultures. Always use an aspirator for this
purpose. Never taste chemicals or solutions.
12. Slides, test tubes, Petri dishes, flasks, and
other materials containing live organisms
should be autoclaved first for 30 minutes
before washing.
13. Report any accident to the instructor.
14. Maintain a first-aid kit in the laboratory.
15.
mischief while in chemical/ microbial
handling and storage areas.
LABORATORY RULES AND REGULATIONS
Laboratory activities can eb safe and dangerous. The
difference depends on one’s knowledge of safe
laboratory practices. Below are important rules that
student are expected to follow
1. Study the laboratory activities beforehand.
Settle any questions about the procedure
before you begin to work
2. Arrange the materials needed for activity in
an orderly manner
3. Maintain a clean, open work area, free of
everything except those materials necessary
for the activity. Keep other books, notebooks,
and bags, out of the way. Keep laboratory
materials away from the edge of the
worktable.
4. Tie back long hair. Loose flowing hair can be a
serious fire hazard.
5. Use shoes that give maximum protection
against broken glassware and spilled
chemicals. Avoid wearing sandals or open-
toed shoes.
6. Do not use direct or reflected sunlight to
illuminate your microscope. Direct or
reflected sunlight can cause serious injury to
the eyes.
7. Be careful when using sharp or pointed
instruments such as scalpels, dissecting
needles, pins, and scissors.
8. Do not put anything in your mouth and do not
touch or taste substances in the laboratory
unless instructed to do so.
9. Do not smell chemicals in the laboratory
without specific instructions. Also, do not
inhale fumes directly; waft the fumes above
the chemical toward your nose and sniff
carefully.
10. Do not eat or drink in the laboratory.
11. Use chemicals only from containers that are
labeled with the name of the chemicals to be
used.
12. When diluting acid with water, always add
acid to water.
13. Perform only those experiments for which
you have complete instructions. If you decide
to change some conditions in a given
 experiment, be sure to consult your teacher
first before carrying out the procedure.
Importance and Relevance to Nursing
 Microbiology is a subject which deals with
microbes and their related concepts.
 Nurses are involved in controlling infection in
hospital, so nurses must know about
microbiology
 To know about harmful and harmless
microorganisms to human beings.
Microbiology in Nursing Education
 Nose piece – rotating of objective lens
 Objective lens are the most important
part of microscope. Usually 3,4,5 lenses
4x to 100x ang power niya
 Stage control – the one used in moving
the mechanical stage
 Condenser – focus light from illuminator
 Illumination –light source of microscope

 Nurses apply the microbiology knowledge in

health care for drug production, diagnosis
and sterilization methods and cleanliness.
 Nurses use hot water or antiseptic as
measure to sterilize the surgical knife,
needles, scissors, and other metals
instruments.
 Microbiology also gives knowledge to nurses
on how to handle a patient and his samples
infected with communicable diseases, to free
from microbes.
Parts of Microscope

 Eyepiece or ocular lens – this is the lens

to look view the specimen. It contains 10x
to 15x power lens
 Diopter - use as means to change the
focus to correct the vision of both eyes
 Coarse adjustment knob – bring the
specimen to general focus
 Fine adjustment knob – increases the
detail of the specimen