Taking Swabs

Question 1

What is the difference between taking a dry sin swab and a tissue/wound swab?

Answer 1

Dampen the cotton wool swab in sterile fluid for the dry skin swab

Question 2

What’s the process of taking a dry skin swab?

Answer 2

position the patient to expose the area
clean the vile of sterile fluid and open
dip the tip of the cotton wool in sterile fluid
gently roll the damp swab over the area
unscrew the test medium bottle
insert into test medium and snap off (if required)
complete swab label and form
arrange transport to microbiology

Question 3

What’s the process of taking a tissue swab?

Answer 3

position the patient to expose the area
gently rub/roll the swab over the moist tissue/open wound
unscrew test medium bottle
insert swab into medium and snap
complete swab labels and form
arrange transport to microbiology

Question 4

What equipment do you need to take a dry skin swab?

Answer 4

Swab
Sterile fluid
Culture medium
Alcohol wipe
Lab request form

Question 5

What equipment do you need to take a tissue/wound swab?

Answer 5

Swab
Culture medium
Lab request form

Question 6

What’s the process of taking a throat swab?

Answer 6

sit patient facing a good light source
depress tongue
quickly but gently rub the swab over the tonsillar fossa or area with lesion/exudate
unscrew top of test medium
insert swab into test medium and snap
label swab and fill out form
arrange transport to microbiology

Question 7

What is the rationale for taking a throat swab?

Answer 7

identify/isolate infective organism

dictate effective treatment protocol

Question 8

What equipment do you need to take a throat swab?

Answer 8

light source
tongue depressor
swab
culture medium
lab request form

Question 9

What is microscopy?

Answer 9

when they quickly view the sample under the microscope

Question 10

What is culture?

Answer 10

sample grown to identify the organism

Question 11

What is sensitivity?

Answer 11

deciding the effective antibiotics