NMC Infection Prevention and Control 3 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Which practice is essential when using personal protective equipment (PPE) to prevent self-contamination during doffing?
- Remove the gown before gloves
- Remove gloves last to protect hands during doffing (Correct answer)
- Remove the mask first to allow easier breathing
- Perform hand hygiene only after all PPE is removed
Correct answer: Remove gloves last to protect hands during doffing
Gloves should be removed last during doffing because hands are the most common vehicle of self-contamination; hand hygiene follows immediately.
Question 2: A nurse sustains a needlestick injury from a patient with unknown HIV status. What is the FIRST action to take?
- Report to occupational health immediately
- Start post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) before doing anything else
- Wash the wound thoroughly with soap and water (Correct answer)
- Ask the patient to consent to an HIV test
Correct answer: Wash the wound thoroughly with soap and water
The immediate priority after a needlestick is thorough washing with soap and water to reduce the viral load at the exposure site.
Question 3: Standard precautions apply to which of the following?
- Only patients with confirmed infections
- Blood and all body fluids, secretions, and excretions (except sweat) (Correct answer)
- Only blood and visibly bloody fluids
- Patients identified as high risk only
Correct answer: Blood and all body fluids, secretions, and excretions (except sweat)
Standard precautions apply to blood and all body fluids, secretions, and excretions (except sweat), regardless of infection status.
Question 4: A nurse is caring for a patient with methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) wound infection. Which precaution level is required?
- Standard precautions only
- Droplet precautions
- Contact precautions (Correct answer)
- Airborne precautions
Correct answer: Contact precautions
MRSA is transmitted by direct or indirect contact with the patient or their environment, requiring contact precautions.
Question 5: What is the recommended contact time (dwell time) for most alcohol-based hand rubs to be effective?
- 5 seconds
- 10–15 seconds until hands are dry (Correct answer)
- 30 seconds minimum
- 60 seconds
Correct answer: 10–15 seconds until hands are dry
ABHR should be rubbed over all hand surfaces for approximately 20–30 seconds until hands are completely dry to achieve effective microbial reduction.
Question 6: Which of the following best describes the chain of infection?
- Pathogen → reservoir → portal of exit → mode of transmission → portal of entry → susceptible host (Correct answer)
- Host → pathogen → environment → transmission → outcome
- Infection → colonization → disease → recovery → immunity
- Exposure → incubation → illness → convalescence → carrier state
Correct answer: Pathogen → reservoir → portal of exit → mode of transmission → portal of entry → susceptible host
Breaking any link in the chain of infection — pathogen, reservoir, portal of exit, transmission, portal of entry, susceptible host — prevents disease spread.
Question 7: A healthcare facility is experiencing a Norovirus outbreak on a ward. Which environmental decontaminant is most appropriate?
- 70% isopropyl alcohol wipes
- Quaternary ammonium compounds
- Sodium hypochlorite (bleach) solution (Correct answer)
- Chlorhexidine gluconate
Correct answer: Sodium hypochlorite (bleach) solution
Norovirus is resistant to many disinfectants; sodium hypochlorite (bleach) at the appropriate concentration is recommended for environmental decontamination.
NMC Infection Prevention and Control 3
Which practice is essential when using personal protective equipment (PPE) to prevent self-contamination during doffing?