What are the basic precautions health care workers use to prevent the spread of infection, treating all body fluids, non-intact skin, and mucous membranes as if infected?

Prepare for the Nurse Aide I Module B – Infection Prevention Test. Leverage multiple choice questions, detailed flashcards, and comprehensive explanations. Ensure your readiness for the exam!

Standard Precautions are the baseline approach used with every patient to prevent infection spread. The rule to treat all body fluids, non-intact skin, and mucous membranes as potentially infectious captures this approach, because it assumes infection could be present in any patient and requires universal actions such as hand hygiene, gloves for contact with bodily fluids, protective eyewear and gowns when splashes or contact are possible, safe injection practices, and proper cleaning of contaminated surfaces. Other sets of precautions—airborne, droplet, and contact—address specific transmission routes for particular diseases and add steps beyond standard precautions when indicated, but they do not represent the universal baseline that applies to all patients and all body fluids. Therefore, the best answer is Standard Precautions.