11.2: Fundamentals of infection control

Question 1

What are the fundamentals of infection control?

Answer 1

Good hand washing and side room isolation

Question 2

What are the advantages and disadvantages of using a side room?

Answer 2

Advantages: prevents cross contamination and HCAIs which reduces closure of wards and prevents care disruption
Disadvantages: need resources, depression of patients

Question 3

What are the different type of isolation facilities?

Answer 3

1. Single occupancy rooms
2. Cohosting groups of infectious patients (i.e 3 patients with flu)
3. isolation wards
4. Isolation of immunocompromised patients
5. Critical care areas and special care baby units
6. Isolation hospitals
7. High security infectious disease units

Question 4

Define positive and negative pressure ventilation, who would you want to keep in positive pressure ventilation rooms?

Answer 4

Negative pressure: allows inflow of air into the room to prevent escape of contaminated air

Positive pressure: for neutropenic patients (low WBCs)

Question 5

What is the purpose of standard infection control precautions (SICPs)

Answer 5

To prevent cross transmission (i.e blood and other body fluid secretions, contaminated equipment). There are mandatory updates on infection prevention and control education sessions for health care workers at all levels

Question 6

What comprises the SICPs bundle?

Answer 6

1. Isolation based on risk assessments
2. Hand hygiene
3. PPE
4. Management of care equipment
5. Safe waste disposal; colour coded bags (yellow most commonly seen in hospitals for infectious waste)
6. Respiratory hygiene
7. Environmental control
8. Occupational exposure management i.e needle stick injury, incident reporting (IR form), immunization

Question 7

What are the three levels of hand hygiene

Answer 7

1. Social hand hygiene - 15 sec
2. Hygienic hand hygiene
3. Surgical scrub - 3 min

Question 8

What is a limitation to alcohol-based hand rubs?

Answer 8

They aren’t effective against spore forming organisms i.e C. Difficile

Question 9

What are the ‘5 moments for hand hygiene’

Answer 9

1. Before patient contact
2. Before clean/aseptic preformed
3. After body fluid exposure
4. After patient contact
5. After contact with patient surroundings

Question 10

Why is urgency important in occupational exposure situations?

Answer 10

PEP (post exposure prophylaxis) and other treatments may be required for HIV, ideally administered within 1 hour of the incident

Question 11

What are the three types of disinfection?

Answer 11

High-level disinfection: destroys all microorganisms except the bacterial spores (need sterilization)

Intermediate disinfection: inactivate was most bacteria, most viruses and fungi (doesn’t kill bacterial spores)

Low-level disinfection: can kill most bacteria, some viruses and fungi but not tubercle bacilli/bacterial spores

Question 12

What are some respiratory precautions? Name three conditions where these are necessary

Answer 12

TB, seasonal flu, chickenpox

1. Single room occupancy (doors closed)
2. Masks inside room and taken off outside room
3. Gloves and apron
4. Hand washing followed by alcohol gel

Question 13

Who oversees infection control in the hospital? What do they do?

Answer 13

Infection control committee; in every hospital with members such as a public health representative, infection control nurses, occupational health, pharmacists

They ensure infection control mandatory training is up to date, deal with IR forms, standard operating procedures and conduct audits