After spending an hour washing your station with soap and warm water to remove visible dirt, you have effectively done which of the following?

• A. Sanitized It
• B. Sterilized It
• C. Cleaned It
• D. Disinfected It

Answer: (C)

The action being tested is the difference between cleaning and the other levels of sanitation. Washing with soap and warm water to remove visible dirt physically removes soil and some microorganisms from the surface—that is cleaning. It lightens the surface of contaminants and prepares it for further treatment, but it doesn’t guarantee that all germs are killed or that the surface meets sanitizing or disinfecting standards. Sanitizing aims to reduce microbial numbers to a safe level, disinfecting aims to kill most pathogens, and sterilizing eliminates all forms of life and spores. So, after this cleaning step, you’ve achieved cleaning, not sanitizing, disinfecting, or sterilizing. In practice, you would typically clean first, then apply a sanitizing or disinfecting agent if required by the setting or protocol.