Durgical
EN
Open the app

Standard precautions

  • Safe practice

The basic measures used with every patient, every time, to avoid spreading microorganisms, whether or not an infection is known.

Updated

What it is

Standard precautions are the minimum infection prevention and control practice that every health worker uses with every patient, at all times and in any setting. They rest on a simple idea: blood, body fluids, secretions, mucous membranes and non-intact skin can transmit infection even when the patient has no diagnosis. They include hand hygiene, personal protective equipment (PPE) chosen by risk, respiratory hygiene, appropriate patient placement, aseptic technique and safe injection practice, sharps injury prevention, cleaning of the environment and equipment, and handling of linen and waste. Transmission-based precautions are added to these; they never replace them.

What it requires

  • Assessing the risk before each task: what might splash, what will be touched.
  • Alcohol-based hand rub, soap and water, PPE in several sizes and sharps containers close to the point of use.
  • Staff trained and supervised in correct PPE use.
  • Frequent cleaning of the most-touched surfaces.

Components

  • Hand hygiene.
  • Personal protective equipment: gloves, gown, mask, goggles or face shield, according to risk.
  • Respiratory hygiene and cough etiquette.
  • Patient placement according to the risk of transmitting infection.
  • Aseptic technique and safe injection practice.
  • Prevention of sharps injuries.
  • Cleaning and disinfection of the environment and shared equipment.
  • Handling of bed linen and waste.

How it is applied (and why)

  1. Before each task, assess what exposure is possible — that is how you choose the right PPE.
  2. Perform hand hygiene before and after touching the patient and after removing gloves — hands are the main route of transmission.
  3. Wear gloves to touch blood, fluids, mucous membranes or non-intact skin; change them between patients — gloves are not washed or reused.
  4. Wear a gown if clothing may be soiled, and a mask with goggles or a face shield if splashes are likely — it protects skin and mucous membranes.
  5. Offer a mask and tissues to a coughing patient and ask them to cover up — fewer droplets reach others.
  6. Use each needle, syringe and single-dose vial for one patient only — it prevents spreading bloodborne viruses.
  7. Discard sharps straight into the sharps container, without recapping — it prevents needlesticks.
  8. Clean and disinfect shared equipment and high-touch surfaces — the environment acts as a reservoir.
  9. Remove PPE and perform hand hygiene before leaving the room — it avoids carrying microorganisms to other areas.

In nursing practice

  • For a lumbar puncture or an epidural catheter, the person doing the procedure wears a surgical mask.
  • In aerosol-generating procedures (intubation, bronchoscopy) the whole face is protected, as well as gloves and gown.
  • Used bed linen is handled with as little shaking as possible, so particles are not dispersed.
  • If the patient may contaminate the environment, a single room is preferred.

Common mistakes

  • Using gloves as a substitute for hand hygiene.
  • Caring for two patients with the same pair of gloves.
  • Touching your face, phone or the chart with gloves on.
  • Recapping needles with both hands.
  • Using only alcohol hand rub with a patient who has Clostridioides difficile diarrhoea.

Test yourself

Think of the answer, then tap the question to see it.

Which patients do standard precautions apply to?

All of them, at all times and in any setting, whether or not they have a diagnosed infection.

What decides the PPE used under standard precautions?

The exposure expected in the task: gloves if fluids will be touched, a gown if clothing may be soiled and face protection if a splash is likely.

When is soap and water preferred over alcohol hand rub?

When hands are visibly soiled or contaminated with fluids, and after caring for patients with Clostridioides difficile, whose spores alcohol does not remove.

Which standard precaution applies to a patient coughing in the waiting room?

Respiratory hygiene: offer a mask and tissues, ask them to cover their cough, make hand hygiene easy and keep a distance from others.

Add to my cards (4)

Connections

← All of nursing

Educational content for students; it does not replace your institution's protocols, supervised clinical training or a prescriber's order. Dose-calculation examples use made-up numbers: they are educational, not a clinical order.

Sources: Isolation Precautions: Summary of Recommendations (Guideline for Isolation Precautions, 2007) (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 2007); Standard precautions for the prevention and control of infections: aide-memoire (World Health Organization (WHO), 2022); Nursing Skills, 4.2 Aseptic Technique Basic Concepts (Open RN, Wisconsin Technical College System (LibreTexts copy, CC BY 4.0), 2021); Nursing Fundamentals, 9.6 Preventing Infection (Open RN, Wisconsin Technical College System (LibreTexts copy, CC BY 4.0), 2021).

Spotted a mistake?We are always improving for the community. Tell us what is wrong and our team will review it.Report a mistake

Representative model, for educational purposes only.