Infection Control
What this domain tests
Infection control items ask you to break the chain of infection with the right level of decontamination and the right PPE - not to recite the scariest pathogen. Expect questions on how a pathogen travels from client to client, what "hospital-grade" means on a disinfectant label, and what to do after a blood exposure.
The chain and standard precautions
Infection needs a pathogen, a reservoir, a portal of exit, a mode of transmission, a portal of entry, and a susceptible host. In a salon the reservoir is usually the client's skin, an implement, a towel, or the inside of a footbath; the portal of entry is a nick, a torn cuticle, or a nail fold. Standard precautions mean treating every client's blood and body fluids as infectious: wash hands with soap and water before and after every service and after glove removal, wear gloves when contact with blood or non-intact skin is likely, and never treat gloves as a substitute for handwashing.
Cleaning, disinfection, sterilization
Cleaning removes visible soil with soap and water - nothing more. Disinfection destroys most pathogens on a hard surface using an EPA-registered hospital-grade disinfectant mixed and timed exactly per its label, including a tuberculocidal claim. Sterilization destroys all microbial life including spores and requires an autoclave; it is not required for routine nail tools. Porous items - files, buffers, orangewood sticks, cotton, pedicure slippers - are single-use and discarded. Non-porous metal implements are cleaned, dried, immersed or wiped for the label's full contact time, then stored in a clean, covered container.
Worked example
A metal nipper slips from the tray onto the floor mid-service. Rinsing it in the hand sink is not enough: the item is contaminated, so it leaves the station, is cleaned of debris, disinfected for the full label contact time, dried, and stored clean. Had the item been a foam buffer, it would be discarded instead.
Traps
Believing a UV cabinet sterilizes, cutting the label contact time short, using disinfectant past its dilution date, and using gloves in place of hand hygiene.