The One-Page Safety Card and the Ten-Minute Drill
A taped recap card in four quadrants, quadrant two carrying a miniature of the two-lane PPE sequence with the doorway rule kept, quadrant four redrawing the four triage tags with their word labels retained.
THE CARD
Quadrant 1 · Route to barrier
| Route | Barrier |
|---|---|
| Contact | Gown and gloves on entry, dedicated equipment, single room preferred |
| Droplet | Surgical mask on entry, single room preferred, door may stay open |
| Airborne | Fit-tested respirator with seal check, negative-pressure isolation room, door closed |
| Protective environment | Positive pressure, high-efficiency filtered incoming air, sealed room, no added PPE for the healthy staff member |
Quadrant 2 · The two sequences
| DON | DOFF |
|---|---|
| 1 Hand hygiene | 1 Gloves |
| 2 Gown | 2 Goggles or face shield |
| 3 Mask or respirator | 3 Gown |
| 4 Goggles or face shield | doorway, door closed |
| 5 Gloves | 4 Mask or respirator |
| 5 Hand hygiene |
CDC also publishes a variant removing gown and gloves together. Re-check both against the current CDC PPE sequence at every reprint.
Quadrant 3 · Hand hygiene agent
| Situation | Agent |
|---|---|
| Routine, hands not visibly soiled | Alcohol-based rub |
| Hands visibly soiled, or after the restroom | Soap and water |
| Spore-forming organism suspected or confirmed | Soap and water, plus a sporicidal surface agent |
Watch outSpores survive alcohol. This is the single line on the card most often skipped.
Quadrant 4 · Triage tags
| Tag | Criterion |
|---|---|
| Green, minor | Ambulatory; directed away from the treatment area |
| Yellow, delayed | Breathing, perfusing, following commands |
| Red, immediate | Failure of respirations, perfusion, or mental status that intervention can correct |
| Black, expectant | No respirations after the airway is opened, under the adult algorithm |
THE TEN-MINUTE DRILL — one minute each, from memory, no page turning.
- Assign the four precaution categories to four organisms of your choosing.
- State the removal order and where each item comes off.
- Name the two situations that require soap and water for spores.
- State RACE and PASS in order.
- State the restraint order rule.
- Name the two dual-category conditions and the one exception.
- State what the transported patient wears and what the transporter wears.
- Name the four immunities and give one example of each.
- State four things that make a sterile field contaminated.
- State the first action after a fall.
NPSG YEAR BLOCK — NPSG EDITION 2026 — current-year, verify at reprint Identify patients correctly · Improve staff communication · Use medications safely · Use alarms safely · Prevent infection · Identify patient safety risks · Prevent mistakes in surgery.
CROSS-LINKS → BOOK 05 · P7 drug safety · → BOOK 06 · P5 calculation safety · → BOOK 07 · P3 every value · → BOOK 11 · P9 the neutropenic patient · → BOOK 13 · P8 the immunization schedule · → BOOK 15 · P7 technique · → BOOK 16 · P4 the countdown.
Margin noteGloves off first, respirator off outside.
Memory hookFour that float, everything else falls.
TakeawayOne card, ten prompts, and everything else in the book was scaffolding to get here.