Certified Biomedical Equipment Technician (CBET) Practice Exam

When an infant incubator displays the same temperature readout for both air and skin modes, it strongly indicates that the skin probe is not providing accurate readings. This scenario often occurs when the skin probe has fallen off the infant. If the probe is detached, it cannot measure the infant's skin temperature accurately, leading the incubator to rely solely on the air temperature reading. As a result, the displayed temperatures for both modes become identical, reflecting the condition of the surrounding air rather than the actual skin temperature of the infant.

The other options could contribute to temperature discrepancies, but they are less likely to cause both readouts to be identical. For instance, if the skin probe were disconnected from the device or there was an issue with calibration, it would likely lead to a malfunction or error code, rather than just identical readouts. Similarly, a failure to preheat the incubator would typically not result in the same temperature being read for both modes; the air temperature could vary significantly from the infant's skin temperature.