Safety, Emergency Response, and Infection Control
Safety and infection control
Safety questions test whether you prevent harm before it happens. Keep the bed low, wheels locked, call light and personal items within reach, and the floor clear. Use a gait belt for transfers and never catch a falling resident with your back-lower the resident safely and call for help. Report any change in balance, confusion, or new weakness. Restraints are not a convenience: they require a provider's order, the least restrictive option, regular release, circulation checks, and toileting. Know your facility's elopement and wandering precautions.
For fire, remember RACE: Rescue anyone in immediate danger, pull the Alarm, Confine the fire by closing doors, and Evacuate or Extinguish only if safe. PASS is for using an extinguisher: Pull, Aim, Squeeze, Sweep. For choking, encourage coughing if the airway is effective; if the resident cannot breathe, cough, or speak, call for help and begin trained abdominal thrusts or CPR. For a seizure, protect the head, turn the resident to the side, do not restrain or put anything in the mouth, and time the event.
Infection control rests on hand hygiene, which is the single most important step. Wash before and after resident contact, after removing gloves, and after touching contaminated items. Use standard precautions for all residents; add contact, droplet, or airborne precautions as posted. Do not wear gloves into the hallway or substitute gloves for handwashing.
Worked example: you enter a room and see a wastebasket on fire. Rescue the resident, activate the alarm, close the door, and follow the evacuation plan-do not stop to put out a small fire unless trained and the exit is clear.