Infection Prevention and Control Including Sterilisation and Disinfection Flashcards
What are the three ways that healthcare associated infections can be prevented?
prevent development of antibiotic resistance, prevent transmission and prevention of infection of individual patient
How does transmission of pathogens occur?
there is a source, there is a mode of transmission and there is a susceptible host
What are different sources of pathogens?
animate (healthcare worker, patient) and inanimate objects (fomite, environment)
What are the different modes of transmission?
contact transmission, droplet transmission and airborne
What are the different types of contact transmission?
direct (person to person) or indirect (via a contaminated intermediate)
What pathogens travel via direct contact transmission?
herpes simplex, scabies
What is droplet transmission?
where the size of the particle is greater than 5 micro metres and so drops to the ground after travelling about 1m - produced by coughing and sneezing
What pathogens travel via droplet transmission?
– influenza – pertussis – SARS – Neisseria meningitidis – rhinovirus
What is airborne transmission?
where the size of the particle is less than 5 micro metres so can travel long distances via the air and can be dispersed widely by air currents
What pathogens travel via airborne transmission?
– TB
– Measles
– Varicella
What are the different isolation precautions?
standard precautions and transmission base precautions
What are standard precautions?
precautions used for all patients at all times to protect the health care worker - involves the use of gloves, gowns and goggles when in contact with blood, all body fluids, secretions and excretions (except sweat), non intact skin and mucous membranes
What are contact precautions?
gowns and gloves for all patient contact, single room
Which patients require contact precautions?
patients with diarrhoea, excessive wound drainage, multidrug resistant organisms and respiratory viruses
What are droplet precautions?
use surgical masks and a single room
Which patients require droplet precautions?
patients with pertussis, meningococcus and respiratory viruses
What are airborne precautions?
negative pressure ventilation, N95 mask, single room with door closed
Which patients require airborne precautions?
TB, chicken pox, measles, pandemic infleunza, SARS
What is sterilisation?
The process of killing or removing all viable organisms,
including viruses, bacteria, fungi and spores
What is disinfection?
The process that eliminates many or all-pathogenic
microorganisms on inanimate objects with the
exception of bacterial spores
What is cleaning?
The removal of visible soil (eg organic and inorganic
material) from objects and surfaces - essential prior to sterilisation and disinfection
What is the spaulding classification?
a ranking system for how an object will be disinfected depending on its intended use
What objects are critical according to the spaulding classification?
objects which enter normally sterile tissue e.g. surgical instruments, cardiac catheters
What objects are semicritical according to the spaulding classification?
objets that touch mucous membranes or skin that is not intact e.g. endoscopes
What objects are noncritical according to the spaulding classification?
objects that touch only intact skin
What is the method for critical disinfection?
steam for most objects or certain gases or chemicals for heat sensitive objects
What is the method for semi critical disinfection?
high level chemical disinfection
What is the method for non critical disinfection?
low level chemical disinfection e.g. alcohol
What is aseptic non touch technique?
a framework for how to do asepsis in a standardised way - used to prevent contamination of equipment and skin breaches by microorganisms that could cause infection
What is sterile?
free from microorganisms
What is aseptic?
free from infection or infectious material
What is used for skin prep?
alcohol and chlorhexidine or iodine
