Safety, infection control and compliance

A phlebotomist skips hand hygiene between two patients and carries bacteria from one to the other. Which link in the chain of infection did the unclean hands provide?

A phlebotomist removes her gloves after drawing blood from a patient on contact precautions for C. difficile diarrhea. Which hand hygiene does she use?

Between two outpatient draws, a phlebotomist's hands are not visibly soiled and neither patient has a spore-forming infection. Which hand hygiene method is preferred?

A patient with suspected pulmonary tuberculosis is in a negative-pressure room. What respiratory protection does the phlebotomist wear to go in?

A hospital patient with influenza is on droplet precautions. Which item do droplet precautions add for staff entering the room?

A new phlebotomist at a busy outpatient draw station asks which patients standard precautions apply to. Which is the accurate reply?

After drawing blood from one patient in a semiprivate room, a phlebotomist is asked to draw the patient in the next bed. What is done with the gloves?

While engaging a needle's safety shield, a phlebotomist is stuck by the used needle. What is done first?

Under the OSHA Bloodborne Pathogens Standard, how must an employer handle the hepatitis B vaccine for a newly hired phlebotomist?

A phlebotomist signed a hepatitis B vaccine declination form when she was hired. A year later she asks for the vaccine. What does OSHA require?

The sharps container on a phlebotomy cart reaches its fill line halfway through morning rounds. What does the phlebotomist do?

A phlebotomist used a syringe to draw from a fragile vein and must now fill the tubes. How is the blood moved into the tubes?

Which of these is an engineering control under the OSHA Bloodborne Pathogens Standard?

Under the Needlestick Safety and Prevention Act, who must have input when a hospital chooses new safety needles?

A lavender tube falls and cracks on the floor, spilling blood and glass. After putting on gloves, how is the spill cleaned up?

A small fire starts in a wastebasket beside a patient's bed. Following RACE, what does the phlebotomist do first?

Midway through a draw, a seated outpatient says he feels faint and turns pale. What does the phlebotomist do first?

During a venipuncture, a patient begins to have a seizure. What is the right response?

Two phlebotomists in a crowded elevator discuss a patient's HIV test, naming the room number. Which rule do they break?

At the end of a shift, a phlebotomist has a printed list of the morning's patients and their tests. Why does it go in the shredding bin, not the trash?

A patient's adult daughter phones the lab and asks for her mother's cholesterol result. The phlebotomist takes the call. What is the right response?

The rule to use at least two patient identifiers before collecting a specimen is one of the National Patient Safety Goals. Which organization sets these goals?

Which organization publishes the consensus standard that sets the order of draw and venipuncture steps?

A phlebotomy student reads that both NIOSH and OSHA deal with workplace safety. How do their roles differ?

The specimen refrigerator's log lists an acceptable range of 2 to 8 degrees C. This morning it reads 12 degrees C. What does the phlebotomist do?

On a CLIA-waived glucose meter, the high control passes but the low control reads out of range before morning testing. What happens next?

A clinic adds a CLIA-waived hemoglobin test. What does "waived" mean for the staff who run it?

An outpatient faints after a draw and slides from the chair, bumping her knee. Once she has been cared for, what documentation is needed?

A phlebotomist wrote the wrong collection time on a paper specimen log. How is the entry corrected?

A competent adult says no to a blood draw, but the phlebotomist draws it anyway while the patient protests. Which legal term fits?

After the patients leave, a phlebotomist realizes she may have swapped the labels on two patients' tubes. What does professional ethics require?