Infection Prevention and Control
What you must understand
Know the chain of infection, standard precautions, transmission-based precautions, hand hygiene, and sterile technique. Standard precautions apply to all patients regardless of diagnosis; additional precautions are added for specific transmission routes.
Traps in questions
- Hand hygiene is the single most effective measure to prevent healthcare-associated infection. Questions often present a plausible but secondary action (gloves, gown) as a distractor.
- Gloves do not replace hand hygiene. Wash hands before and after glove use.
- Precautions - contact (MRSA, C. difficile, scabies), droplet (influenza, pertussis, meningococcal), airborne (tuberculosis, measles, varicella). Airborne requires a fit-tested respirator and negative-pressure room.
- Sterile field - items below waist level or out of sight are contaminated; never turn your back on a sterile field.
Worked rule of thumb
Match the precaution to the route of transmission: contact = direct/indirect touch; droplet = large respiratory droplets over short distance; airborne = small particles over long distance. If the organism is airborne, choose the respirator and negative-pressure room, not just a mask.
Chain of infection
Break any link - the most practical link to break in healthcare is transmission, through hand hygiene and correct precautions.