Microbes Infections and Parasites Quiz

Standard Precautions

• All items that come into contact with patient's excretions, secretions, blood, body fluids, mucous membrane, or non-intact skin are considered contaminated.
• Contaminated materials must be treated in a special way.

Isolation Unit

• Isolation unit can be an area or a private room.
• Patients with the same disease may share a room.
• A room with handwashing facilities is ideal.
• Private room is indicated for patients who:
  • Are highly infectious
  • Have poor personal hygiene
  • Require special air control procedures within the room

Preparing for Isolation

• Place a card introducing the type of isolation precaution on the door to the patient's room.
• Place an isolation cart outside the room with personal protective equipment (PPE) such as:
  • Gown
  • Mask
  • Gloves
  • Goggles or face shields
  • Plastic bag for biohazardous waste
  • Plastic bag for soiled linen
• Line the wastepaper basket inside the room with a plastic bag labeled or color-coded for infection waste.
• Place a laundry hamper in the room and line it with a color-coded biohazard laundry bag.

Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)

• Sequence for applying PPE:
  1. Wash hands
  2. Gown
  3. Mask
  4. Goggles or face shield
  5. Gloves
• Sequence for removing PPE:
  1. Gloves
  2. Wash hands
  3. Goggles/face shield
  4. Gown
  5. Mask
  6. Wash hands
• Protective eye wear: full face shield or goggles worn at any time splashing of blood, body fluids, secretions, or excretion may occur.
• Surgical mask:
  • Use only once and discarded
  • Changed if it becomes moist or handled
  • Never left secured around the neck because it contaminates the uniform and the environment

Fomites and Reservoir

• Fomites: objects that become contaminated with infectious materials that contain microorganisms.
• Reservoir: in the healthcare setting, includes patient, healthcare workers, environment, and equipment.

Portals of Entry and Exit

• Portals of entry: breaks in the skin or mucous membranes, respiratory tract, genitourinary tract, gastrointestinal tract, and circulatory system.
• Portals of exit: excretion, respiratory tract, genitourinary tract, draining wounds, urine, feces, blood, and other body fluids.

Microorganisms

• Yeasts: can infect areas such as mouth, vagina, skin, and feet.
• Molds: can cause infection in the lungs, such as aspergillus.
• Viruses: smallest microbe, classified by types of nucleic acid core (DNA or RNA), and clinical properties.
  • Common viral infections include hepatitis, herpes, HIV, AIDS, chickenpox, influenza, and common cold.
• Protozoa: simple one-celled organisms that live on living matter, classified by the way they move, and cause diseases such as malaria, toxoplasmosis, and African sleeping sickness.

Chain of Infection

• Infection occurs when certain conditions exist, including the presence of a microorganism, reservoir, portal of exit, mode of transmission, portal of entry, and susceptible host.

Removing Personal Protective Equipment

• Removing contaminated gloves:
  1. Pull the cuff of the gloves down
  2. Hold the glove with the still-gloved hand
  3. Insert the finger of the ungloved hand under the cuff of the glove on the other hand
  4. Pull the glove off inside out
  5. Drop both gloves together into the biohazardous waste receptacle
  6. Wash hands
• Removing contaminated eye protection, gown, and mask:
  1. Assemble equipment
  2. Undo waist ties of gown, if they are in the front
  3. Remove contaminated gloves
  4. Grasp the earpieces or head strap or face shield and lift the eye protection outward
  5. Undo waist ties of gown, if they are in the back
  6. Undo neckties and loosen shoulders
  7. Slip the fingers of your dominant hand inside the cuff of the other hand without touching the outside of the gown
  8. Remove the gown and dispose of it in the correct receptacle
  9. Turn faucets on with a clean paper towel.