Answers to Case Studies
Answer to Case Study #1:
Direct contact is the most common way that infections are transmitted. Doctors can easily pass microorganisms from one client to another if they do not wash their hands between client examinations. Doctors are also at risk of infection when they do not wash their hands after removing gloves, since small holes in the gloves can expose the doctors to infections.
Answer to Case Study #2:
Anita should not draw blood from a client without wearing gloves, regardless of the amount of blood being drawn. Anita should put gloves on after charting the weight and before drawing the blood. She should also wash her hands after removing the gloves and before picking up a pen to continue charting vitals.
Answer to Case Study #3:
Condoms do not cover enough area to adequately protect the fingers or hand and are difficult to remove without the risk of contamination. This should not be considered an acceptable infection prevention practice. However, if there are no gloves at all, condoms are better than bare hands for the vaginal exam. It is acceptable to exam a client's pelvic/ abdominal area without gloves if the examiner and the client both have intact skin. If there is a lesion, sore, cut, or break on either person's skin, then gloves must be worn.
Answer to Case Study #4:
The employee should always wear gloves when handling dirty or contaminated laundry. All the dirty linen bags should be collected on a cart designated for contaminated linens only. Once the linens are deposited in the laundry room, the employee should wash the gloves while still wearing them, remove them, and place then in a decontaminating solution for 10 minutes. The employee should then wash his hands with soap and water. The clean replacement linen should have it's own designated cart and should be delivered either before or after all the dirty linen bags are collected so there is no potential for cross-contamination.
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