Infection prevention
Apply standard precautions, instrument decontamination, environmental cleaning and sharps safety according to current policy.
Understand
Standard precautions apply to every patient. Instrument decontamination, hand hygiene, PPE, environmental cleaning, waterline management and sharps systems work together.
Assess
Check the practice's validated processes, traceability, storage and staff competence. Identify a breach promptly and assess whether patients or staff need action.
Apply
Follow current local and national guidance, report incidents and learn from them. Do not rely on a visibly clean instrument as evidence it has been sterilised.
Key distinctions
Decontamination has a chain of cleaning, inspection, packaging, sterilisation, storage and traceability. Failure at any stage can invalidate the endpoint. Standard precautions apply to all patients because infectious status may be unknown. Waterline and environmental controls, safe sharps handling and staff training also matter. An incident response should consider exposure and the need for patient notification.
Think through a case
An instrument pouch is intact but the cycle record shows a decontamination failure. Appearance does not prove sterilisation, and the incident needs assessment.
The distinction to remember
Do not treat infection prevention as only PPE; validation, traceability and environmental controls matter.
Test your recall
What should happen after a sharps injury?
Show answer
Immediate first aid, reporting and risk assessment under local protocol.