Standard Precautions
ATHIRA MOHAN C
Standard Precautions
Standard precautions is a set of infection
control practices applicable for all the
patients all the time regardness of disease
Standard precautions is a set of infection
control practices used to prevent
transmission of infection or micro organisms
that can acquired by contact with blood ,
body fluids , mucus membrane and non
intact skin.
Standard Precautions
Perform Hand hygiene.
Use of personal protective equipment
Follow Respiratory hygiene/cough etiquette principles.
Ensure appropriate patient placement
Clean and disinfect patient care equipment and instruments /
devices
Clean and disinfect the environment appropriately
Handle textiles and laundry carefully.
Follow safe injection practices
Sharps
Biomedical waste management
Hand hygiene
The World Health Organization (WHO) defines hand
hygiene as the practice of cleaning hands to reduce the
spread of infection.
Hand washing is the act of cleaning one’s hands with
the use of any liquid with or with out soap for the
purpose of removing dirt or micro organism
WHO
Father of hand hygiene – Ignaz Philip Semmelweis
( 1818-1865 )
Hand hygiene
TYPES
1) Social hand washing
Soap & water
10-15 sec
2) Medical hand washing
Antimicrobial soap (2% CHG) & water
40-60 sec
3) Surgical hand washing
hand & forearm washed
2-5 mts
Hands dried using sterile towel
( 4% CHG & 60-90 % ethanol )
Hand hygiene
Facilities & Materials
• Running water
• Elbow operating tab
• Antiseptic solution
• Facilities for drying hands
Specific antiseptics :
0.5% Chlorhexidine
5%-7.5% Povidone iodine
1% Triclosan
OR
Hand rub - 60%-90% alcohol
Hand hygiene
Nail less than 0.5 inches
Remove jewellery
Roll the sleeves upto the elbow
Hand rub
Hand rub – 15-20 Sec
Each bedside have hand rub
hand rub-Above 60% isopropyl alcohol or ethanol &
2% chlorhexidine gluconate
For neonate-Povidone Iodine
Moments for hand hygiene
Before touching a patient
Before clean / aseptic procedure
After body fluid exposure risk
After touching a patient
After touching patient surroundings
Hand washing steps
1) Rub hand palm to palm
2) Right palm over left dorsum with interlaced fingers and
vice versa
3) Palm to palm with fingers interlaced
4) Backs of fingers to opposing palm with fingers
interlocked
5) Rotational rubbing of left thumb clasped in right palm
and vice versa
6) Rotational rubbing , backwards and forwards with
clasped fingers of right hand in left palm and vice versa
Use of personal protective equipment
Gloves – protect hands and allow efficient removal of
organisms from hands
Gowns and Aprons – protect skin and clothing
Face masks– protect mucous membranes of mouth and
nose
Respirators- prevent inhalation of infectious material
Goggles – protect eyes
Face shields – mucous membranes of face, mouth,
nose and eyes
Principles for PPE Use
Don before contact with the patient – Generally before
entering the room
Remove and discard PPE carefully
After doffing, immediately perform hand hygiene
PPE
Donning doffing
1) Gown 1) Gloves
2) Mask or respirator 2) Goggles or face shield
3) Goggles or face shield 3) Gown
4) Gloves 4) Mask or respirator
5) Wash hands
Follow Respiratory hygiene/cough etiquette
principles
Cover your mouth and nose with a tissue when
you cough or sneeze
Throw used tissues in the trash.
If you don't have a tissue, cough or sneeze into your
elbow, not your hands.
Ensure appropriate patient placement
Place patients who are risk for transmission to in a
single-patient room when available
Patient options for room-sharing (e.g., cohorting
patients with the same infection)
Spacing
Clean and disinfect patient care equipment and instruments /
devices
Establish policies and procedures for containing,
transporting, and handling patient-care equipment and
instruments/devices that may be contaminated with
blood or body fluids
Remove organic material from critical and semi-critical
instrument/devices, using recommended cleaning
agents before high level disinfection and sterilization to
enable effective disinfection and sterilization processes
Wear PPE (e.g., gloves, gown)
Clean and disinfect the
environment appropriately
Establish policies and procedures for routine and targeted
cleaning of environmental surfaces as indicated by the level of
patient contact and degree of soiling.
Use EPA-registered disinfectants that have microbiocidal (i.e.,
killing) activity against the pathogens most likely to
contaminate the patient-care environment.
Handle textiles and laundry carefully.
Handle used textiles and fabrics with minimum
agitation to avoid contamination of air, surfaces and
persons
If laundry chutes are used, ensure that they are properly
designed, maintained, and used in a manner to
minimize dispersion of aerosols from contaminated
laundry
Follow safe injection practices
Use aseptic technique
Do not administer medications from a syringe to multiple
patients
Use fluid infusion and administration sets for one patient
only
Use single-dose vials for parenteral medications
If multidose vials must be used, both the needle or cannula
and syringe used to access the multidose vial must be sterile
Do not keep multidose vials in the immediate patient
treatment area and store in accordance with the
manufacturer’s recommendations; discard if sterility is
compromised
