Final answer:
To ensure quality control in urine dipstick tests, medical assistants should use sterile techniques and follow strict guidelines on usage and read times of the test strips.
Step-by-step explanation:
To ensure quality control testing on a urine dipstick test, a medical assistant should adhere to several procedures. Firstly, using forceps sterilized in alcohol, a sterile filter paper blank disk should be removed from its container and then soaked in the positive control solution. After soaking the disk and allowing the excess liquid to drip back into the container, the disk must be placed on the appropriately labeled section of the test plate.
It's also important to follow the usage instructions for test strips, which include adhering to the proper read time to obtain optimal results, due to the kinetic aspects of the chemical reactions on the strip. Additionally, in instances of low specificity or sensitivity in the rapid screening tests, positive results might require confirmation through a urine culture, following proper collection protocols to minimize contamination.