Health Care (Vocational Subject): Vital Signs, Infection Control, First Aid and Patient Care
What this domain covers
Health Care as a Madhyamik vocational subject tests whether you can act safely as an entry-level health-care assistant: measure and record vital signs, keep a patient clean and comfortable, prevent infection, give correct first aid, and deal with patients and families within ethical limits. Expect short definitions, matching, ordering of procedure steps, and small case scenarios rather than long essays.
Core rules to memorise
- Normal adult vital signs: temperature 36.5–37.5 °C; pulse 60–100 beats per minute; respiration 12–20 breaths per minute; blood pressure about 120/80 mmHg; SpO2 95% or above.
- Hand hygiene is the single most effective infection-control step - before and after every patient contact and after removing gloves.
- The chain of infection has six links (agent, reservoir, exit, transmission, entry, susceptible host); breaking any one link stops spread.
- First aid follows DRABC - Danger, Response, Airway, Breathing, Circulation - before any wound care.
- Burns: cool with clean running water for about 20 minutes, remove jewellery, cover loosely with clean non-fluffy cloth. Never apply ice, toothpaste, oil or ink.
- Pressure-sore prevention: reposition an immobile patient at least every 2 hours, keep skin dry, inspect bony prominences.
- ORS: one standard packet dissolved in exactly one litre of clean water; discard after 24 hours.
- Biomedical waste colour coding: yellow (human/animal waste), red (soiled recyclable plastic), white translucent (sharps), blue (glass, metallic implants), green (general waste).
Worked example
A patient says she feels hot. You record temperature 39.2 °C, pulse 116/min, respiration 26/min. Reasoning: all three readings are above the normal ranges, and pulse and respiration normally rise with fever (roughly 10 beats/min per 1 °C), so this is a consistent febrile pattern, not a recording error. Action: record the values with the time, inform the nurse or doctor, offer fluids, do tepid sponging, and recheck after 30 minutes. You do not give paracetamol on your own.
Traps that cost marks
- Counting respirations while the patient knows - they alter the rate; count after pulse with the hand still on the wrist.
- Writing systolic and diastolic pressure the wrong way round.
- Using ice or toothpaste on a burn, or bursting a blister.
- Mixing ORS with too little water, which worsens dehydration.
- Skipping hand hygiene or forgetting to note the time of a reading.