Health Care (NSQF Vocational Trade) - Core Practices for the PSEB Senior Secondary Paper
Health Care (NSQF Vocational Trade)
This domain tests the applied knowledge expected of a Senior Secondary NSQF learner in the Health Sector Skill Council job roles - General Duty Assistant, Home Health Aide, Emergency Medical Technician–Basic, Hospital Front Desk Coordinator and Hospital Waste Management Assistant. Questions are situational: you are given a ward scene and asked what you do first, which colour bin you use, or which value is normal.
Core rules and concepts
- Scope of practice: a General Duty Assistant assists with hygiene, feeding, mobility, positioning, elimination needs and vital-sign recording. Medication administration, IV injections and clinical diagnosis stay with the registered nurse or doctor.
- WHO Five Moments of hand hygiene: before touching a patient, before a clean/aseptic procedure, after body-fluid exposure risk, after touching a patient, after touching patient surroundings. Alcohol-based rub for visibly clean hands; soap and water when soiled or after caring for a patient with C. difficile.
- Biomedical waste colour coding (BMW Rules): yellow - human anatomical waste, soiled dressings, expired medicines; red - contaminated recyclable plastics such as IV tubing and gloves; white translucent - needles, syringes with needles, blades; blue - glassware and metallic implants.
- Normal adult vitals: pulse 60–100/min, respirations 12–20/min, oral temperature about 37 °C, BP around 120/80 mmHg, SpO₂ 95–100%.
Worked example
A GDA removes an IV cannula and is left holding the sharp, the soiled cotton swab and the cut tubing. Where does each item go?
Reasoning: the cannula is a puncture hazard, so it goes into the puncture-proof, leak-proof white translucent container without recapping by hand. The blood-stained cotton is general infectious soft waste, so it goes into the yellow bag. The tubing is contaminated plastic destined for recycling after treatment, so it goes into the red bag. Mixing them is the classic error: putting soiled cotton in red contaminates the recycling stream, and dropping the needle in yellow exposes the waste handler.
Traps that cost marks
- Treating red as "anything plastic" - only contaminated recyclable plastic belongs there.
- Confusing the front-desk coordinator's role (registration, appointment scheduling, medico-legal record handling, confidentiality) with clinical duties.
- Reciting confidentiality as absolute: it yields to statutory notification and immediate safety risk.
- Reporting a single abnormal reading instead of rechecking and recording both values with time.