Infection Control, Safety, and Public Health Requirements
This domain tests standard precautions, safe practice, and the nurse's public-health reporting role. The exam draws on Kentucky communicable-disease law, including KRS 214.010 and 902 KAR 2:020, plus accepted infection-control and occupational-safety standards.
Infection control
- Use standard precautions for every patient: hand hygiene, gloves, gown, mask, and eye protection based on anticipated exposure; respiratory hygiene; safe injection practices; and safe sharps handling.
- Clean technique is not sterile technique. Follow isolation signage and facility policy; do not substitute gloves for hand hygiene.
- After a needlestick or sharps injury, wash the site with soap and water, report immediately, complete the exposure report, assist with source evaluation, and begin post-exposure prophylaxis if indicated.
Safety and public health
- Report reportable diseases to the local health department and cooperate with isolation, quarantine, or exclusion orders.
- Use facility error-reporting and safety systems; good-faith reporting supports correction and is protected from retaliation.
- Follow immunization, tuberculosis screening, and fit-testing requirements established by the facility and public-health authorities.
Worked example. A nurse sustains a needlestick after an injection. She washes the site, reports immediately, completes the exposure report, and helps arrange source-patient testing per policy. She starts post-exposure prophylaxis if indicated. She does not wait for symptoms or decide the risk is too low to report.
Traps. Thinking gloves replace hand hygiene; using sterile technique when clean technique is indicated; reporting a disease only after confirmation when suspicion triggers a duty; skipping the exposure report because the needle was clean.