Standard Precautions

Standard precautions are guidelines used to prevent infection with diseases transmitted through blood or body fluids. The nurse should be familiar with examples of diseases that require the use of standard precautions and those that require transmission based precautions. Transmission-based precautions include airborne precautions, droplet precautions, and contact precautions.

• Gloves should be worn when there is a chance of contact with blood and body fluids, when handling other potentially infected material, and when performing vascular access procedures.

• Gloves should be changed after each client contact and between contact procedures with the same client.

• Masks and protective eyewear should be worn when there is a likelihood of splashes or when body fluids might become airborne.