Patient Safety, Infection Control and Evidence-Based Practice
Patient safety and infection control
Patient safety includes falls prevention, manual handling, equipment safety, and recognising deterioration. Use safe handling principles and risk assessments. Infection control requires standard precautions: hand hygiene, personal protective equipment, safe sharps handling, and environmental cleaning. Know the chain of infection and where to break it. Use additional precautions for transmissible infections.
Evidence-based practice
Evidence-based practice integrates the best available research, clinical expertise, and patient values. Understand the hierarchy of evidence: systematic reviews and randomised controlled trials above cohort and case studies. Know the concepts of sensitivity, specificity, likelihood ratios, and the difference between statistical and clinical significance. Appraise studies for bias, validity and applicability.
Traps
Questions often test whether you can distinguish a measure of diagnostic accuracy (sensitivity) from a measure of effect (number needed to treat). Another trap is choosing the strongest study design for a therapy question (RCT or systematic review). Watch for items on hand hygiene timing (before and after patient contact) and on the correct response to a needlestick injury.
Rule of thumb
When appraising evidence, ask: is the study valid, what is the effect size, and does it apply to my patient? For infection control, the single most effective measure is hand hygiene at the right moments. For safety, assess risk before every intervention and document it.