Hand Hygiene & PPE

How the programme is structured and assessed, and the boundary it works inside. Completing this course does not credential you as a hand hygiene auditor and does not substitute for fit testing - both come from elsewhere, and this module says where.

Also here: what standard precautions are and why they apply to every patient every time regardless of known diagnosis; and how this programme relates to Aseptic Technique (OBA-AT-2026), which is a separate discipline built on top of the precautions taught here. Read that comparison before you buy both.

In this section: the module slide deck, the student learner guide, and the knowledge check. The check is formative - not graded, no attempt limit - and the rationale on every option is the content.

Why hands are the principal route of transmission, what transient flora is and how it differs from resident flora, and the nine components that make up standard precautions - most clinicians can name two or three.

The two sentences this module exists for sit side by side in the Guidelines: hand hygiene is the single most important strategy in preventing healthcare associated infections, AND hand hygiene alone is not sufficient. Both are true, and the second is the one that explains a unit with excellent compliance and a flat infection rate.

In this section: the module slide deck, the student learner guide, and the knowledge check. The check is formative - not graded, no attempt limit - and the rationale on every option is the content.

The five moments in the Commission's own words, which of them protect the patient and which protect you and the environment, and why Moment 2 is not a repeat of Moment 1.

Then the part that is not on the poster: Recommendation 1 also requires hand hygiene before putting on gloves and after removing them, and the Guidelines list further occasions outside the five entirely - keyboards and devices, food, the toilet, starting and leaving work. Seven, not five, and the two extra ones are among the most commonly missed in Australia.

In this section: the module slide deck, the student learner guide, and the knowledge check. The check is formative - not graded, no attempt limit - and the rationale on every option is the content.

Alcohol-based hand rub as the product of choice under Recommendation 4, when soap and water is required instead under Recommendation 5, and the three areas both techniques name for particular attention - fingertips, thumbs and between the fingers. All three are missed in most observed episodes.

No volumes and no brands appear anywhere in this module. Rub goes on dry hands in the amount that product's manufacturer specifies, and the endpoint is dryness rather than a clock. The minimum of 20 seconds belongs to soap and water, and the module is careful about which is which.

In this section: the module slide deck, the student learner guide, and the knowledge check. The check is formative - not graded, no attempt limit - and the rationale on every option is the content.

Excellent against enveloped viruses and most bacteria; lesser and variable against non-enveloped viruses such as norovirus; and no activity at all against bacterial spores and protozoan oocysts. The module explains why, from the structure rather than from a table.

Recommendation 6 in full, including the condition almost everybody drops. It is not 'always soap and water for C. difficile'. It asks about the state of your hands - whether gloves were worn, whether they were breached, and whether there is visible contamination - and where intact gloves were worn, hand rub remains the agent of choice even for a confirmed case.

In this section: the module slide deck, the student learner guide, and the knowledge check. The check is formative - not graded, no attempt limit - and the rationale on every option is the content.

Bare below the elbow, including the provision for staff who cover their forearms for religious, cultural or safety reasons. Nails, artificial nails, polish and jewellery, with the reason attached to each rather than a list of prohibitions.

And skin care treated as an intervention rather than a comfort measure. Irritant contact dermatitis is named in the Guidelines as one reason healthcare workers fail to adhere to hand hygiene - which makes hand cream a compliance measure, and a worker with cracked hands a problem for the unit rather than for themselves.

In this section: the module slide deck, the student learner guide, and the knowledge check. The check is formative - not graded, no attempt limit - and the rationale on every option is the content.

The three indications in Recommendation 31, the requirement to change gloves between patients and after every episode of individual care, and the two hand hygiene moments that bracket every pair.

The argument this module makes is that gloves worn without indication are a hazard rather than a cautious choice. A gloved hand becomes contaminated exactly as a bare hand does, and then does not prompt the hand hygiene a bare hand would have prompted - which is why the perception that gloves dispense with hand hygiene appears on the Guidelines' own list of documented barriers.

In this section: the module slide deck, the student learner guide, and the knowledge check. The check is formative - not graded, no attempt limit - and the rationale on every option is the content.

The three-factor risk assessment: the probability of exposure, the type of body substance, and the probable type and route of transmission. The patient's diagnosis is not one of them, which is why the same patient legitimately requires different PPE for different tasks in the same hour.

Recommendations 29 and 30, where PPE may and may not be worn, why an apron is removed in the area where care took place, what changes between two patients cohorted in one room, and who may authorise extended use during a shortage - which is the organisation in consultation with infection prevention and control, not an individual under pressure.

In this section: the module slide deck, the student learner guide, and the knowledge check. The check is formative - not graded, no attempt limit - and the rationale on every option is the content.

Surgical masks and P2 or N95 respirators are different devices for different purposes, and the module keeps them apart. AS/NZS 1715 is the protection programme; AS/NZS 1716 is the device.

The distinction the module is built on: fit testing is done for you, once per model, by trained personnel with equipment, and a supply change invalidates the result without expiring it. Fit checking is done by you, at the point of use, every single time. Both are required, and the two failure modes are symmetrical. Also here: what to do when a respirator will not seal and you are the only person available.

In this section: the module slide deck, the student learner guide, and the knowledge check. The check is formative - not graded, no attempt limit - and the rationale on every option is the content.

Contact, droplet and airborne precautions applied in addition to standard precautions, never instead of them. A patient on contact precautions still gets the 5 Moments.

Then doffing, which is the higher-risk half of PPE use and the half nobody observes: everything you touch is contaminated on its outside, and it happens at the end when you are tired. This course deliberately prints no competing sequence - yours is on the poster where you work - and teaches the principles instead. Finally the three listed PPE breaches, two of which involve no damage at all, and the notification pathway, which triggers on a potential breach and does not ask you to judge how serious it was.

In this section: the module slide deck, the student learner guide, and the knowledge check. The check is formative - not graded, no attempt limit - and the rationale on every option is the content.

How a compliance rate is actually produced - direct observation against the 5 Moments by credentialled auditors - and therefore what it does and does not measure. A sample rather than a census, subject to the Hawthorne effect, and best read as a ceiling rather than an average.

All four limbs of NSQHS Action 3.10, three of which concern what happens after the audit. And the seven documented barriers to hand hygiene, of which only one would be substantially addressed by more education - which is the argument for the ward audit tool shipped with this programme.

In this section: the module slide deck, the student learner guide, and the knowledge check. The check is formative - not graded, no attempt limit - and the rationale on every option is the content.

The assessment brief first: what is graded, what is not, and what the certificate evidences. Then the case study assessment - five unfolding clinical cases across 23 branching decisions, completion required and not graded, with feedback on every option including the plausible wrong ones.

The summative assessment is 60 single-best-answer items blueprinted across all eleven modules, with a pass mark of 80 per cent and two attempts. Printable versions of both are here for offline use and for accessibility; the assessment of record is completed in the platform, which scores it and issues the certificate.

Five optional tools, deliberately excluded from the claimable CPD figure because they are optional. Complete them and you may claim the time as additional self-directed CPD.

The moment spotter walks one episode of care and asks which moment applies at each step. The product chooser is rub or wash, with the recommendation behind every answer. The PPE selector puts the same patient in front of you twice with different tasks and different correct answers. The glove decision drill is fast, because the failure it addresses is an instinct. The scope self-check sorts every activity against your own role.

Three fillable instruments for use in your service. None of them is a compliance audit and none produces a compliance rate - national data comes from auditors credentialled through the National Hand Hygiene Initiative, using a different method and a different denominator. Each form says so on its face, because a form that looks like an audit gets reported as one.

The competency assessment tool is completed by a workplace assessor while observing, and carries the assessor's own competence declaration. The training and competency register turns a completion rate into a gap analysis, and includes the fit testing register - which asks the one question most services cannot answer, namely whether the respirator model on the shelf is the model people were tested on. The ward audit tool audits the conditions rather than the people.

The reflective workbook is fillable and is your CPD evidence - the NMBA expects registered and enrolled nurses to hold their own record of what was learned and how it applies to practice. Nothing in it is submitted or marked.

The scope of practice card is one page, designed to be printed and kept where you work. The further reading directory lists the Australian organisations behind this content with live links and a currency note.