Care Certificate, Standard 15 of 15
Infection prevention and control
The chain of infection and how to break it, standard precautions, hand hygiene to the correct technique at the correct moments, PPE used and removed in the right order, sharps, waste and linen, and what changes during an outbreak.
Why this standard matters in practice
The single most effective clinical intervention in a care setting costs nothing and takes twenty seconds. The standard also teaches the harder part: why compliance collapses on a short staffed shift, and how to stop that.
How it is assessed
The knowledge in this standard is assessed by a knowledge check, which you can take here as part of the Care Certificate course. Attempts are unlimited and marking happens on our servers, so the answers are never sent to the browser.
This standard has a practical half. The knowledge is taught here in full, but the physical technique in this standard has to be observed by a competent assessor in your own workplace, using your own equipment. No online certificate substitutes for that, ours included.
Questions about Standard 15
What are the moments for hand hygiene?
Before touching a person, before a clean or aseptic task, after body fluid exposure risk, after touching a person, and after touching their surroundings. The last one is the most skipped and the most important in a care home, where the surroundings are shared by everyone.