

There are three categories of transmission-based precautions: contact precautions, droplet precautions, and airborne precautions. For patients with these types of pathogens, standard precautions are used along with specific transmission-based precautions. difficile (C-diff), Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), Vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE), Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV), measles, and tuberculosis (TB). Epidemiologically-important pathogens include, but are not limited to, Coronavirus disease (COVID-19), C. In addition to standard precautions, transmission-based precautions are used for patients with documented or suspected infection, or colonization, of highly-transmissible or epidemiologically-important pathogens.

These standards reduce the risk of exposure for the health care worker and protect the patient from potential transmission of infectious organisms.Ĭurrent standard precautions according to the CDC (2019) include the following:

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), standard precautions are “the minimum infection prevention practices that apply to all patient care, regardless of suspected or confirmed infection status of the patient, in any setting where health care is delivered.” They are based on the principle that all blood, body fluids (except sweat), nonintact skin, and mucous membranes may contain transmissible infectious agents. Standard precautions are used when caring for all patients to prevent health care associated infections. Open Resources for Nursing (Open RN) Standard Versus Transmission-Based Precautions Standard Precautions
