Infection Prevention and Control in Practice

Infection prevention and control protects patients and staff, and much of it comes down to habits done consistently, every patient, every time. The CBT tests whether you know those habits and the reasoning behind them.

Standard precautions for everyone

The foundation is standard precautions: the basic measures used with every patient regardless of diagnosis. Hand hygiene, appropriate PPE, safe handling of sharps and waste, cleaning equipment, and dealing with spills. The reason they apply to everyone is simple and often tested: any patient could carry an infection that is not yet known. Reserving precautions for confirmed cases would miss all the undiagnosed ones.

Hand hygiene: the five moments

Hand hygiene is the single most important measure, and the framework is the WHO five moments: before touching a patient, before a clean or aseptic procedure, after body fluid exposure, after touching a patient, and after touching their surroundings. Questions often test the “before a procedure” moment, because that is where you protect the patient from organisms on your hands.

The most tested detail is when soap and water beats alcohol gel. Gel is quick and effective for many situations, but it does not destroy spores. So for visibly soiled hands, and after caring for patients with Clostridioides difficile or diarrhoea and vomiting, you wash with soap and water to physically remove the spores. Wearing gloves does not replace hand hygiene.

PPE and isolation

PPE is chosen by the task and the risk of exposure: gloves and an apron for body fluid contact, and a mask or eye protection where splashing or airborne spread is likely. It is put on and removed in the correct order and disposed of safely. Wearing full PPE for everything is not the answer; matching it to the risk is.

When a patient has a suspected easily spread infection, they are isolated, often in a side room, with the relevant precautions, rather than left in an open bay or waiting for confirmation while others are exposed.

That completes Part B4, providing and evaluating care, the largest section of the bank. The safe, methodical habits here, from medicines to infection control, are the core of everyday practice the CBT is built to test.