Carecraft · Infection prevention
Infection prevention, every time
Turn standard precautions into consistent, situation-aware habits.
What to do
- Apply standard precautions to everyone. Do not wait for an infection diagnosis. Match hand hygiene, PPE, injection safety, and equipment handling to the task and anticipated exposure.
- Choose protection for the exposure. Assess potential contact with blood, body fluids, mucosa, and nonintact skin. Add transmission-based precautions when indicated by local policy and current organism-specific guidance.
- Protect the next interaction. Perform hand hygiene at required moments; gloves do not replace it. Remove PPE safely and clean or appropriately reprocess shared equipment before the next patient.
Key point: Standard precautions are the starting point for every patient—not a label reserved for known infections.
Try a real situation
Between two patients on a bay, the shared blood-pressure cuff looks spotless. The first patient had no known infection and the next is waiting. What determines whether it is ready to reuse?
Standard precautions apply to everyone, so reuse follows the approved process for that item, not how it looks or who used it.
Reflect
Which frequently touched piece of shared equipment needs a clearer cleaning handoff in your workplace?
Evidence and guidance
