Infection Prevention and Control
Overview
Infection Prevention and Control tests the chain of infection, hand hygiene, standard precautions, sterilisation and biomedical waste - the everyday rules that protect patients and staff.
Chain of infection
Infectious agent → reservoir → portal of exit → mode of transmission → portal of entry → susceptible host. Break any link to prevent infection: for example, hand hygiene breaks transmission.
Standard precautions
- Hand hygiene before and after every patient contact and after removing gloves.
- Gloves, gown, mask and eye protection according to risk; never reuse gloves between patients.
- Safe sharps handling: do not recap needles; dispose immediately in a puncture-proof white sharps container.
Hand hygiene
WHO five moments: before touching a patient, before a clean procedure, after body-fluid exposure, after touching a patient, after touching surroundings. Alcohol handrub 20–30 seconds; soap and water 40–60 seconds, and always when hands are visibly soiled.
Sterilisation and waste
Sterilisation kills spores (autoclave, 121 °C, 15 psi, 15–20 minutes); disinfection does not. Waste: yellow - infectious and anatomical; red - contaminated recyclable plastic; white - sharps; blue - glass and metallic implants.
Worked example
A nurse sustains a needlestick after injecting a patient. Reasoning: wash the wound with soap and water, do not squeeze or suck, report immediately, and start post-exposure prophylaxis assessment after source testing. This is a sharp injury, so the needle should never have been recapped.
Traps that cost marks
- Saying alcohol handrub kills spores - it does not.
- Putting needles in the yellow bag.
- Removing gloves instead of performing hand hygiene.