Infection-Prevention-Control Flashcards
What are the objectives of IPC?
- Formulate strategies to combat infections
- Identify evidence-based measures for Prevention and control
- Risk assessment
- Understand importance of good personal hygiene
- Maintain safe environment for patients (reduce risk of nosocomial infections), healthcare workers, and visitors
Define IPC.
The process by which policies, procedure, and activities are designed to control and prevent transmission of disease within healthcare facility and in communities
What are the 4 common types of Nosocomial infections?
- UTIs - due to catheterization; catheter gets contaminated; infections ascend at point of insertion
- Pneumonia - caused by cold, immobility, and aspiration
- Surgical Site infection (SSIs) - longer surgeries have higher chances of contamination
- Bloodstream infections (BSIs) - via contaminated injections
What conditions predispose one to nosocomial infections?
- Prolonged bed rest
- Overcrowding
- Resistant microorganisms
- New unidentified microorganisms from mutations
- Invasive devices (ex: prosthetic devices, feeding tubes, respiratory tract tubes, injections, IV drips)
- Surgical wounds
- Impaired immunity (HIV, those on antibiotics)
What are the modes of transmission of infectious agents?
Direct contact
Indirect contact (airborne)
Droplets
From the time the infectious agent is developing in its reservoir, how can the chain of infection be broken here?
Rapid and accurate identification of organism
Recognition of susceptible hosts (who can be reservoirs)
Disinfection and sterilization of equipment
Sanitation
Treatment
Keeping environment clean
What are the 11 Universal Standard Precautions taken to break the chain of infection?
- Hand hygiene
- Respiratory hygiene and cough etiquette
- Appropriate use of personal protective equipment
- Proper waste management
- Prevention of needle stick injuries
- Used Linen processing
- Patient care equipment processing
- Environmental cleaning
- Isolation, Precautions, and Patient Placement
- Health education to patients and visitors
- Staff health
Define hand hygiene.
The use of water and soap or other liquids to remove dirt, soil, and micro-organisms
What are the 3 levels of hand hygiene?
- social hand washing; very simple, removing dirt, organic material, and most transient organisms;
- Clinical/Hygienic hand washing; kills most transient microorganisms, used in hospital for wound care and catheters
- Surgical/Scrubbing; before an operation; reduces floral bacteria; involves clinical handwashing, but more complicated and up to elbow area
State atleast 5 principles of handwashing.
- At beginning of shift before providing care
- After providing patient care
- After handling used linen
- Between contact with different patients
- Before leaving nursing unit
- Before eating
What is the difference between cleaning, decontaminating, disinfecting, and sterilizing?
Cleaning; removing visible foreign material
Decontamination; removed infectious agents on equipment using chemicals
Disinfection; killing nearly all disease-producing micro-organisms except their spores
Sterilization; destroy both microorganisms and their spores
What is the difference between autoclaving and incineration?
Both use heat, but autoclaving uses moist heat (steam), while incineration uses dry heat
What are the principles of Respiratory Hygiene and Cough Etiquette?
- cover nose and mouth with tissue or mask when coughing or sneezing
- Use tissues and masks should be disposed appropriately
- Perform hand hygiene after contact with respiratory secretions
- Those with acute symptoms must be kept atleast 1 meter away from others
What are the 6 steps to proper waste management?
- Minimize amount of waste generated in the first place
- Categorize the waste
- Disposal
- Containment (use of international color code for each waste category)
- Transportation of waste
- Treatment/Destruction
Explain what the following international color-codes indicate regarding waste containment; RED, YELLOW, BLACK, WHITE, PURPLE.
BLACK (general noninfectious waste)
WHITE (food remains)
YELLOW (infectious waste; dry material ex: gauze, gloves)
RED (highly infectious anatomical waste; secretions, excretions, wet material)
PURPLE (radiological waste)