Question

Mplants are considered critical items and must be sterilized. Urinary catheters are considered critical items and must be sterilized. Stethoscopes are considered noncritical items and must be disinfected. Surgical instruments are considered critical items and must be sterilized. Endotracheal tubes are considered semi-critical items and must be sterilized.

A) True
B) False

Answer 1

The statement is false because endotracheal tubes, which are semicritical items, require high-level disinfection and not sterilization. Critical items need sterilization, and noncritical items only require disinfection.

Step-by-step explanation:

The statement provided in the question is false. In healthcare settings, items are classified according to the risk of infection associated with their use: critical, semicritical, and noncritical. Critical items are those that enter sterile tissue or the vascular system and must be sterilized; examples include surgical instruments and catheters. Semicritical items are those that come into contact with mucous membranes or nonintact skin and require a high level of disinfection, not necessarily sterilization; an example is endotracheal tubes. Noncritical items are those that come in contact with intact skin but do not penetrate it and only need to be disinfected; examples include stethoscopes and blood pressure cuffs. According to the information provided, endotracheal tubes are incorrectly labeled as requiring sterilization rather than high-level disinfection.