Safety & Infection Control Flashcards

A client with a disability who lives alone falls and cannot get up. Which immediate safety strategy should have been established in the care plan?

Answer: Installing a personal emergency response system (PERS)

A personal emergency response system allows the client to summon help immediately, making it the most reliable fall-response safety strategy for someone living alone.

Which disinfection level is required for reusable equipment that contacts only intact skin, such as a blood pressure cuff?

Answer: Low-level disinfection

Non-critical items that contact only intact skin require low-level disinfection using an EPA-registered hospital disinfectant.

A specialist observes a client self-administering insulin with a previously used syringe. What is the MOST important concern?

Answer: Reusing syringes can cause infection and needle blunting that increases pain

Reusing syringes dulls the needle, causes micro-trauma to tissue, and increases infection risk at the injection site.

Under OSHA Bloodborne Pathogen Standards, which document must be made available to disability specialists who have occupational exposure to blood?

Answer: The written Exposure Control Plan

OSHA requires employers to develop and maintain a written Exposure Control Plan outlining how to minimize bloodborne pathogen exposure risks.

A client with cerebral palsy experiences frequent aspiration. Which intervention MOST directly addresses infection risk from aspiration?

Answer: Positioning the client upright at 90 degrees during and after meals

Upright positioning uses gravity to promote safe swallowing and reduces the likelihood of aspiration, thereby decreasing aspiration pneumonia risk.

Which action by a disability specialist constitutes a break in sterile technique during wound care?

Answer: Reaching across the sterile field to retrieve a supply item

Reaching across a sterile field risks contaminating it with non-sterile sleeves or skin, constituting a break in sterile technique.

A disability specialist is informed that a client was just diagnosed with tuberculosis. Which precaution level is immediately required?

Answer: Airborne precautions

Tuberculosis is transmitted via airborne droplet nuclei and requires airborne precautions, including N95 respirator use and negative-pressure room placement.