Standard Precautions

Standard precautions are the baseline infection control practices applied to ALL clients regardless of diagnosis or presumed infection status. They treat every body fluid (except sweat), non-intact skin, and mucous membranes as potentially infectious. The core elements include hand hygiene, appropriate PPE selection based on anticipated exposure, safe injection practices (one needle/one syringe/one use), respiratory hygiene and cough etiquette, proper handling and disposal of sharps, safe handling of contaminated equipment and linens, and environmental cleaning. The guiding principle is anticipation: before contact, you assess what body fluids you might encounter and gear up accordingly. Standard precautions are NOT the same as transmission-based precautions (airborne, droplet, contact), which layer ON TOP of standard precautions when a specific pathogen is identified. Standard precautions alone are sufficient when no transmission-based precaution order exists. They also include safe injection practices — never reusing syringes or accessing multi-dose vials with a used needle — a testable area tied to real-world outbreak investigations.