Infection Control Flashcards

What is antibiotic stewardship?

Answer: A systematic approach to optimizing antibiotic selection, dose, and duration to improve outcomes and reduce resistance

Antibiotic stewardship programs (ASPs) promote appropriate antibiotic use: right drug, right dose, right duration, and right route. Goals include improving patient outcomes, preventing C. difficile, and reducing antibiotic resistance — a global health threat. Nurses play a key role in culture collection before antibiotic administration.

How should a nurse manage a patient with an infected surgical wound with purulent drainage?

Answer: Apply contact precautions, change the dressing using sterile technique, culture the wound, and notify the physician

Infected wounds require: contact precautions (gloves/gown), sterile dressing changes with wound assessment (size, depth, drainage characteristics), wound culture before antibiotic initiation to guide treatment, and physician notification. Dressing frequency depends on drainage amount and wound condition.

What is the most effective way to prevent the spread of contact-transmitted infections in healthcare?

Answer: Consistent hand hygiene and appropriate use of PPE (gloves and gown) during patient contact

Hand hygiene (before and after patient contact, even when gloves are worn) combined with appropriate PPE use is the most effective and evidence-based method to break contact transmission. No other single intervention has greater impact on HAI reduction.

What does ESBL stand for and what is the clinical significance?

Answer: Extended-spectrum beta-lactamase — enzymes that break down most penicillins and cephalosporins, leaving few treatment options

ESBL-producing bacteria (commonly E. coli, Klebsiella) produce enzymes that hydrolyze most beta-lactam antibiotics including third-generation cephalosporins. Carbapenems (meropenem, imipenem) are often the last-resort treatment. ESBLs spread via contact transmission and are a major healthcare infection challenge.

What is the recommended minimum ventilation requirement for airborne infection isolation rooms?

Answer: Negative pressure with ≥12 air changes per hour, exhausted directly outside or through HEPA filtration

Airborne infection isolation rooms must maintain negative pressure (to prevent contaminated air from escaping), achieve ≥12 air changes per hour (to dilute and remove airborne particles), and exhaust air directly outside or through HEPA filters to prevent circulation of airborne pathogens.

What is the purpose of surveillance cultures in ICU patients?

Answer: To detect silent colonization with MDROs before they cause infection, enabling targeted precautions

Active surveillance cultures (nasal swabs for MRSA, rectal swabs for VRE/ESBL/CRE) in high-risk ICU patients identify asymptomatic colonization. This allows targeted contact precautions to be implemented before infection occurs, reducing transmission to other vulnerable patients.