Infection Control and Safety
Core concepts
Infection control rests on standard precautions applied to every patient. Know the chain of infection, hand hygiene indications, and the difference between cleaning, disinfection, and sterilization. Understand personal protective equipment (gloves, masks, eye protection, gowns), sharps handling, and safe injection practices. Learn instrument processing: transport, cleaning, packaging, sterilization monitoring (biological, chemical, and mechanical indicators), and storage. Know surface barriers versus disinfection, and the management of spills and exposure incidents. Safety topics include ergonomics, latex allergy, waste segregation, and hazard communication.
Traps to watch
Questions love to test the limits of each process: disinfection does not sterilize; chemical indicators do not prove sterility - biological indicators do. Hand hygiene is required before and after glove use, not instead of it. Another trap is the exposure protocol: wash the site, report immediately, and follow post-exposure evaluation; do not attempt to squeeze or scrub a wound aggressively. Spore testing frequency and the meaning of a positive biological indicator are common distractors.
Worked rule of thumb
Match the process to the item's classification. Critical items (contacting bone or blood) require sterilization; semicritical items (contacting mucosa) require high-level disinfection at minimum; noncritical surfaces require cleaning and low-level disinfection or barriers. If a question asks whether a method is adequate, first classify the item.
Practical safety
Keep sharps containers within reach and never overfill. Segregate waste by category and follow local regulations. Report exposures promptly and document.