Elements and Performance Criteria

RANGE STATEMENT
The range statement relates to the unit of competency as a whole. It allows for different work environments and situations that may affect performance. Bold italicised wording, if used in the performance criteria, is detailed below. Essential operating conditions that may be present with training and assessment (depending on the work situation, needs of the candidate, accessibility of the item, and local industry and regional contexts) may also be included.
Codes of practice
Where reference is made to industry codes of practice, and/or Australian/international standards, it is expected the latest version will be used
Standards, codes procedures and/or enterprise requirements
Standards, codes procedures and/or enterprise requirements may include:
Australian and international standards, such as:
AS/NZS 2243 Set:2006 Safety in laboratories set
AS/NZS 2982.1:1997 Laboratory design and construction - General requirements
AS/NZS 4187:2003 Cleaning, disinfecting and sterilising reusable medical and surgical instruments and equipment and maintenance of associated environments in health care facilities
AS/NZS ISO 14000 Set:2005 Environmental management standards set
Australia New Zealand Food Standards (ANZFS) Code
Australian code of good manufacturing practice for medicinal products (GMP)
Australian Dangerous Goods Code
client and product specifications
HB 9-1994 Occupational personal protection
manufacturer's instructions or verbal direction from laboratory manager, supervisor or senior technician
material safety data sheets (MSDS)
National Code of Practice for the labelling of workplace substances [NOHSC:2012 (1994)]
occupational health and safety (OHS) national standards and codes of practice
operation and maintenance manuals for automated media preparation equipment
principles of good laboratory practice (GLP)
production schedules and instructions
standard operating procedures (SOPs)
Equipment
Equipment may include:
balance
pH meter
hot plate stirrer and Bunsen burners
autoclave and Arnold steamer
membrane filtration equipment
measuring cylinders, flasks and glassware and Petri dishes
distilled water apparatus
automatic agar pourers
labelling equipment
refrigerators
sterilisation indicators
self-refilling syringes
Falcon dishes
media storage bottles and tissue culture bottles
Media
Media maybe prepared from:
formulated powders obtained from microbiological companies
first principles under supervision of a technical officer or scientist
Cell and tissue culture media
Cell and tissue culture media may include:
agars
broths
solutions
slopes
basic balanced salt solutions, such as Hank's or Kreb-Ringer's
deeps
enriched media, such as blood sugar, chocolate agar, tetrathionate broth and selenite broth
control media
differential media, such as eosin-methylene blue agar and MacConkey's agar
selective media, such as deoxycholate-citrate agar, Lowenstein-Jensen medium
tissue culture media
labile constituents, such as blood, hormones or antibodies
Sterilisation techniques
Sterilisation techniques may include:
autoclaving
steam and membrane filtration
boiling
microwaving
radiation
high temperature
high pressure steam
gas
chemical treatments
Quality control checks
Quality control checks may include:
streaking out of cultures to a single colony
lawn cultures
Hazards
Hazards may include:
micro-organisms and agents associated with soil, air, water, blood and blood products, and human or animal tissue and fluids
sources of heat, such as ovens, burners and autoclaves
sharps and broken glassware
fluids under pressure and such as steam
radiation used for sterilisation
Safe work practices
Safe work practices may include:
use of MSDS
use of personal protective equipment, such as safety glasses, gloves and coveralls
use of biohazard containers and laminar flow cabinets
correct labelling of reagents and hazardous materials
handling and storing hazardous materials and equipment in accordance with labels, MSDS, manufacturer's instructions, and enterprise procedures and regulations
allowing the chamber pressure of the autoclave to return to zero and temperature to cool to 80-90ºC before opening autoclave door to prevent boil over or plugs/caps being blown off flasks or tubes
regular cleaning and/or decontaminating equipment and work areas
Occupational health and safety (OHS) and environmental management requirements
OHS and environmental management requirements:
all operations must comply with enterprise OHS and environmental management requirements, which may be imposed through state/territory or federal legislation - these requirements must not be compromised at any time
all operations assume the potentially hazardous nature of samples and require standard precautions to be applied
where relevant, users should access and apply current industry understanding of infection control issued by the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) and State and Territory Departments of Health

EVIDENCE GUIDE
The Evidence Guide provides advice on assessment and must be read in conjunction with the performance criteria, required skills and knowledge, range statement and the Assessment Guidelines for the Training Package.

Overview of assessment

Critical aspects for assessment and evidence required to demonstrate competency in this unit
Assessors should ensure candidates can:
prepare culture media which is free of contamination to facilitate the optimal growth of organisms and cells
use appropriate sterilisation techniques, such as maintaining adequate space between containers
perform post-sterilisation procedures, such as dispensing or adding using aseptic technique
ensure the sterilised media has cooled down sufficiently to ensure that heat labile constituents, such as blood, hormones or antibodies are not inactivated when added to the media
consistently follow enterprise procedures
report non-compliances, anomalies or out of specification results.

Context of and specific resources for assessment
This unit of competency is to be assessed in the workplace or simulated workplace environment.
This unit of competency may be assessed with:
MSL943002A Participate in laboratory/field workplace safety
MSL973004A Perform aseptic techniques.
Resources may include:
work schedule and enterprise procedures, including advice on safe work practices
relevant equipment and personal protective equipment
MSDS.

Method of assessment
The following assessment methods are suggested:
review of quality assurance results and examination of batches of media prepared by the candidate
observation of the candidate preparing culture media
written and/or oral questioning to assess underpinning knowledge.
In all cases, practical assessment should be supported by questions to assess underpinning knowledge and those aspects of competency which are difficult to assess directly.
Where applicable, reasonable adjustment must be made to work environments and training situations to accommodate ethnicity, age, gender, demographics and disability.
Access must be provided to appropriate learning and/or assessment support when required.
The language, literacy and numeracy demands of assessment should not be greater than those required to undertake the unit of competency in a work like environment.

This competency in practice
Industry representatives have provided the case studies below to illustrate the practical application of this unit of competency and show its relevance in a workplace setting.
Food processing
A laboratory assistant's task was to prepare and pour agar plates in readiness for milk sampling. The assistant collected all the equipment and material needed to make an agar plate and ensured the working area was suitably prepared. The agar solution was carefully prepared and poured into a large conical flask prior to sterilisation in the autoclave. On completion of the sterilisation cycle, the agar was cooled to 42ºC in a water bath. It was then poured into the plates after flaming the neck of the flask. The lids were quickly replaced on the plates to minimise contamination. The plates were then stored. Any excess plates were bagged in a laminar flow unit and then placed in the fridge. The equipment was hot washed and the benches swabbed with 70% ethanol solution.
Biomedical
Media preparation is a routine task of the technical assistant. The methods and standard procedures are all documented but common working knowledge and standard 'don'ts' are not always written into the methods. Some ingredients, such as labile nutrients and antibiotics must be added under sterile conditions after the basic ingredients have been mixed and autoclaved. In one laboratory there is a list of ingredients not to be autoclaved posted on the notice board, in the media recipe book and for good measure, on the autoclave itself. One day, a technical assistant who was preparing media added all the ingredients, including the glucose, then autoclaved all 20L of it. The technical assistant learned the consequences of not paying full attention to the procedure the hard way and spent most of the day removing the 'toffee' residue from inside the autoclave!