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CNA · 8 Essential Terms
CNA infection-control skills: hand hygiene, standard precautions, linen, transmission-based precautions, C. difficile, sharps, blood spills, and the order for PPE.
These are licensure study notes, not orders for patient care. Follow your program, your facility policy, and the current test plan.
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The main way to stop the spread of infection. Soap and water for at least 20 seconds when hands are soiled or when the organism is not killed by gel. Gel is for hands that look clean, when the policy allows it.
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The main way to stop the spread of infection. Soap and water for at least 20 seconds when hands are soiled or when the organism is not killed by gel. Gel is for hands that look clean, when the policy allows it.
Mnemonic. Twenty seconds with soap when hands are dirty or when gel will not work.
Exam trap. The trap is gel after caring for a resident with C. difficile, or a rinse that never reaches the thumbs. Soap and water for spores and for visibly soiled hands.
The precautions used with every resident: treat blood and body fluids as infectious, use gloves for contact with fluids, and protect the eyes and mouth when a splash is likely.
Mnemonic. Every resident, every time, for blood and body fluids. You cannot tell who carries what.
Exam trap. The trap is gloves only for residents with a known diagnosis. Standard precautions do not wait for a label. Gloves are not a second skin you wear from room to room.
Used linen is held away from the uniform, never shaken, and never placed on the floor. It goes in the proper hamper. Linen that touched the floor is not put back on the bed.
Mnemonic. Carry linen away from your clothes. Do not shake it, and do not use the floor as a shelf.
Exam trap. The trap is sorting linen on the floor or hugging a soiled bundle. Shaking spreads particles. Bring only the linen you need into the room so the extra does not become waste.
Extra precautions added to standard precautions for a known route: contact, droplet, or airborne. The sign on the door tells you what to wear, and you put it on before you go in.
Mnemonic. The sign is the extra layer. Standard precautions are still underneath it.
Exam trap. The trap is gowning up and then carrying the gown into the hallway, or skipping the sign because you are only dropping off a tray. Read the sign before you enter, every time.
A spore-forming cause of serious diarrhea. Alcohol gel does not kill the spores. Soap and water and a bleach-type disinfectant are the usual exam answers, along with contact precautions.
Mnemonic. C. diff needs soap and water, not gel, and a disinfectant that actually kills spores.
Exam trap. The trap is foam in, foam out, because that is the habit for every other room. If the sign says C. diff, wash. Do not share equipment that has not been disinfected.
Needles and other sharp items go into a puncture-resistant container immediately. Needles are not recapped, bent, or handed from person to person. A full container is replaced, not packed down.
Mnemonic. The sharp goes into the box. You do not recap it, and you do not push the box past full.
Exam trap. The trap is recapping a needle the nurse left, or carrying a sharp down the hall to find a box. If a container is over the fill line, it is already a hazard. Tell the nurse about an unused sharp; do not hide it in the trash.
A blood spill is contained, the area is disinfected with the product the facility uses for blood, and the aide wears gloves. Broken glass is picked up with a dustpan, not with the hands.
Mnemonic. Gloves, the right disinfectant, and no fingers on the glass.
Exam trap. The trap is wiping blood with a paper towel from the linen cart and throwing it in the open trash. Absorb, disinfect, and bag according to policy. Report the exposure if blood reaches your skin.
Personal protective equipment is donned before entering and removed so the dirtiest item does not contaminate you. A commonly tested doff starts with the gloves. Follow the skill sheet you were taught.
Mnemonic. Gloves come off first in the usual test sequence, because they are the most contaminated.
Exam trap. The trap is wearing the same gloves to open the door and write in the hallway, or removing the mask first with dirty gloves. The exact middle steps follow your program's sheet. Do not invent a faster order.