Infection Prevention and Control Mock Exam

A Level 1-2 style knowledge check on infection prevention and control for healthcare and care staff. It covers hand hygiene and the WHO 5 Moments, PPE order, sharps and needlestick injuries, blood and body fluid spills, waste and linen, isolation, and catheter care.

Practice quiz

20 questions

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Answer the questions above - your result band updates each time you check an answer.

Question 1. You are about to help a patient sit up. Your hands are not visibly dirty. Which hand hygiene product should you normally use?

Alcohol-based hand rub
Nothing, because your hands look clean
A dry paper towel wiped over your hands
A new pair of gloves instead of cleaning your hands

Question 2. Which of these is one of the WHO "5 Moments for Hand Hygiene"?

Only when your hands look dirty
After touching a patient's surroundings, such as their bed rail or table
Once at the start and once at the end of each shift
Only after using the staff toilet

Question 3. You are caring for a patient with diarrhoea and suspected C. difficile. How should you clean your hands?

Alcohol hand rub is always enough, whatever the infection
No hand hygiene is needed if you wore gloves
Wash with liquid soap and water, because alcohol rub does not kill C. difficile spores
Wipe your hands on your uniform, then use hand rub

Question 4. Which of these helps you carry out effective hand hygiene in a clinical area?

Long sleeves rolled down to protect your forearms
Gel or acrylic nails, as long as they are kept short
Keeping your wrist watch on so you can time the hand wash
Bare below the elbows, short clean nails, and no artificial nails

Question 5. When should you change your gloves?

After each patient or task, and clean your hands after taking them off
Only when they are visibly torn
At the end of the shift, using hand rub on the gloves between patients
Never, because gloves remove the need for hand hygiene

Question 6. In what order should you put on PPE?

Gloves, mask, apron, then eye protection
Apron or gown, mask, eye protection, then gloves
Eye protection, gloves, apron, then mask
Mask, gloves, eye protection, then apron

Question 7. In what order should you take off PPE?

Mask, eye protection, apron, then gloves
Apron, mask, gloves, then eye protection
Gloves, apron or gown, eye protection, mask, then clean your hands
All at once in any order, as long as you use hand rub afterwards

Question 8. A patient is coughing and sneezing. What respiratory hygiene advice should you give them?

Cough into their hands, then carry on as normal
Keep used tissues in a pocket to reuse later
Only cover coughs if they also have a high temperature
Cover the nose and mouth with a tissue, bin it straight away, then clean hands

Question 9. You have just given an injection. What should you do with the used needle?

Put the needle and syringe straight into a sharps container as one unit - do not recap it
Put the cap back on carefully, then bin it later
Take the needle off the syringe by hand, then bin both separately
Leave it on the tray for someone else to clear away

Question 10. When should a sharps container be closed and sent for disposal?

When sharps are sticking out of the top
When it reaches the manufacturer's fill line
When it is full, after pressing the contents down to make more room
Never - empty it into a larger bin and reuse it

Question 11. You get a needlestick injury from a used needle. What should you do first?

Suck the wound to draw out the blood
Scrub the area hard with a nail brush and alcohol gel
Let it bleed, wash it with soap and running water, cover it, and report it straight away
Carry on working and mention it at the end of the week

Question 12. There is a spill of blood on a hard floor. What is the correct way to deal with it?

Mop it with hot water only, using the general ward mop
Cover it with paper towels and leave it for the cleaners tomorrow
Wipe it with alcohol hand gel and a dry tissue
Wear gloves and an apron, then use a spill kit with a chlorine-releasing agent

Question 13. How should you deal with a spill of urine?

Soak it up with paper towels or a gelling agent, then clean and disinfect - never pour chlorine onto urine
Pour chlorine-releasing granules straight onto the urine
Leave it to dry, then sweep it up
Spread it thinly with a mop so it dries faster

Question 14. Dressings from a patient with a known infection need to go in the bin. Which waste stream should you use?

Black bag (domestic waste)
Orange bag (infectious clinical waste)
Yellow and black striped "tiger" bag (offensive waste)
Clear recycling bag

Question 15. What goes in a yellow and black striped "tiger" bag?

Used needles and other sharps
Waste contaminated with cytotoxic medicines
Non-infectious offensive waste, such as incontinence pads from a patient with no known infection
Dressings from a patient with a known infection

Question 16. How should you handle used bed linen from a patient with a known infection?

Shake it out to check for items left in the bed
Put it on the floor until you have finished the bed
Sort it into piles in the bay before bagging it
Put it straight into a water-soluble bag, then an outer impermeable bag, without shaking it

Question 17. When should standard infection control precautions (such as hand hygiene and PPE) be used?

For every patient, at all times, whether or not they are known to have an infection
Only for patients with a confirmed infection
Only in hospitals, not in care homes or people's own homes
Only during an outbreak

Question 18. A patient has new diarrhoea that could be infectious. Where should they ideally be cared for?

In a shared bay, sharing a toilet with other patients
In a single room with its own toilet
In the day room so staff can keep an eye on them
Anywhere, as long as they have a commode

Question 19. You have had diarrhoea and vomiting. When can you return to work in a care setting?

As soon as you feel well enough to work
The next day, as long as you wear gloves
When you have had no diarrhoea or vomiting for at least 48 hours
After 12 hours without symptoms

Question 20. Where should a urinary catheter drainage bag be kept?

Above the level of the bladder, so it drains faster
On the floor beside the bed, so it does not pull
On the bed next to the patient's pillow
Below the level of the bladder and not touching the floor