Reading Gram Stained Smears From Cultures

The bacteria on BOTH the positive and the negative control slides are observed to stain pink. This finding will NOT affect the rest of the slides in the batch.

False

A new batch of Gram stain reagents have been placed into use, so a control slide is used to verify the intended reactivity. Along with the control slide, a Gram stain is also performed on a smear made from a patient culture. The control slide is read first and BOTH control organisms have stained gram-positive (blue to deep purple). What is the BEST course of action prior to reading and reporting the patient results?

Prepare and stain BOTH a new control slide AND patient slide

All of the shapes below can be used to describe cocci EXCEPT for which of the following?

Tapered

Which of the following describe how the ENDS of rod-shaped bacteria may appear? (Choose all that apply.)

Tapered; rounded

Which of the following statements are TRUE for the gram-positive control smear? (Choose all that apply.)

The staining reaction is blue to deep purple; The positive control organism is typically Staphylococcus aureus

Information obtained from the Gram stained culture smears can allow for a more rapid treatment.

True

When reading the Gram stain of a DIRECT smear, the presence of characteristic cellular arrangements is helpful in providing information as to the organisms that are present. Reporting these cellular arrangements is an important component of the report. However, the arrangement of bacterial cells in a Gram stained smear prepared from a CULTURE should be noted, but not usually reported.

True

Which of the following may appear as budding organisms?

Yeast

A Gram stain is performed from a cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) culture. From a sterile body site, it is TYPICAL to expect more than one morphotype (such as gram-negative rods, gram-positive cocci, AND gram-positive rods) to be recovered.

false

Which of the following is NOT a bacterial arrangement that can be observed on a Gram stained smear?

flowering

What is the Gram stain reaction for yeast?

gram positive