Standard Precautions should be practiced on which individuals?

Standard Precautions should be practiced on which individuals?

• A. On every single person under a caregiver's care
• B. On every patient
• C. Only for patients with known infections
• D. Only in surgical settings

Answer: (A)

Standard Precautions are a universal approach to infection prevention, used with every person you care for because anyone can carry pathogens, even if they appear healthy. By applying these practices—hand hygiene, appropriate use of gloves or other PPE when exposure to body fluids is possible, safe handling and disposal of sharps, proper respiratory hygiene, and thorough environmental cleaning—you protect both the caregiver and all patients from potential transmission during any routine care task. Because you don’t know who might be infectious, it’s best to treat all individuals under care as potential sources of infection, rather than limiting precautions to those with known infections, to one type of setting, or to a subset of patients.

Standard Precautions are a universal approach to infection prevention, used with every person you care for because anyone can carry pathogens, even if they appear healthy. By applying these practices—hand hygiene, appropriate use of gloves or other PPE when exposure to body fluids is possible, safe handling and disposal of sharps, proper respiratory hygiene, and thorough environmental cleaning—you protect both the caregiver and all patients from potential transmission during any routine care task. Because you don’t know who might be infectious, it’s best to treat all individuals under care as potential sources of infection, rather than limiting precautions to those with known infections, to one type of setting, or to a subset of patients.