Infection Control and Patient Safety Regulations
This domain tests infection control as a regulatory obligation, not a clinical preference: the standard is applied to every patient, and the Board expects documented compliance.
Standard precautions and engineering controls
- Treat all patients as potentially infectious. Hand hygiene before and after patient contact and after glove removal.
- Gloves, masks, eye protection, and gowns as task-appropriate; change gloves between patients and when torn.
- Sharps handled with a one-hand scoop or a device, never recapped by hand; sharps containers replaced before they are overfilled.
- Single-dose vials and safe injection practices; medication carts kept clean.
- Dental unit waterlines managed with the Board-accepted method, and suction lines cleaned per schedule.
Sterilization and monitoring
- Instruments cleaned, packaged, dated, and sterilized; each load monitored with a chemical indicator, and biological spore testing performed on the schedule the rules require and logged.
- Sterile packages stored closed and dry; compromised packaging is reprocessed.
- Clinical contact surfaces covered or disinfected between patients.
Occupational safety and emergencies
- A written exposure control plan, hepatitis B vaccination offered to at-risk staff, and a confidential post-exposure evaluation and follow-up after any exposure incident.
- Medical history reviewed each visit; emergency equipment including oxygen and an airway available; staff trained to respond.
Worked example. A hygienist notices the autoclave log shows no biological monitor for several weeks and the packaging looks damp. Reasoning: damp packaging is not sterile, and the missing spore test means the process cannot be verified. The correct action is to stop using the load, reprocess affected instruments, resume monitoring, and document the corrective action, not to rely on the chemical indicator alone.
Traps that cost marks
- Believing gloves substitute for hand hygiene.
- Treating a chemical indicator as proof of sterilization.
- Disinfecting a surface that should have been barrier-protected, or vice versa.