Isolation Precaution Types (PPE)

Hey guys, my name is Brad, and welcome to nursing.com. And in today’s video, what we’re going to be doing is we’re going to be discussing some different types of isolation, precautions, as well as the various types of PPE or personal protective equipment that you may come across. Let’s dive in. 

Now, the first type of personal protective equipment that we’re going to talk about are gloves. It’s important to know that there are a lot of different types of gloves. For example, here we have sterile surgical gloves, the type of gloves that are used during invasive procedures or any other type of procedure where sterility is important to be maintained. You also have options such as non-sterile any traditional type of glove that we see used in the hospitals. Now, it’s also important to know that there are different types of material that gloves are made out of, right things such as nitrile. Also important to know that there are, indeed, still latex containing gloves floating around out there. So an important nursing consideration is to know whether your patient has any latex allergies or not. Some other considerations to take into account whenever you’re using gloves is to do a visual inspection, right? To take note of any tears, any breakdown in the integrity of the gloves themselves. And if there are tears or breakdown in the gloves, discard them, get a new pair, right? It’s also important to note that while you’re using them, should the gloves get too soiled, too heavily soiled, go ahead and change them out. Even if you’re using them on the same patient and get a fresh pair of gloves, should they get too soil.  And it’s also important to note while you’re using gloves to try and avoid adjusting your glasses, touching your face, anything like that. Your gloved hand should be considered dirty. 

The next type of PPE that we’re going to discuss are masks and just like gloves there are different types of masks, a lot of different types, actually.  For example, what we have here on screen are your traditional surgical masks. The type of masks that are used in droplet isolation precautions, basically the entire idea is that they cover your nose and cover your mouth and prevent droplets from reaching your mucus membranes, as well as preventing your droplets from reaching the patients. Then you also have examples such as, N95 particulate respirators, if you will. The types of masks that are used in airborne precautions, right? Particulate respirators, such as N95s. Also things like PAPR. Working in the ICU whenever COVID first hit, I myself was wearing a PAPR, which is a Powered Air Purifying Respirator. It’s essentially a big helmet, a big hood that blows positive air into the mask. You kind of feel like an astronaut. It’s very interesting. But nonetheless, the overall idea is that there are many different types of masks and the type of mask that you’re going to choose is based on the type of precaution that your patient’s going to be in. 

The last type of personal protective equipment that we’re going to talk about are both gowns, as well as goggles, right? So gowns are things that are used to cover, to protect, the entire rest of the skin and clothing of the healthcare provider. Specifically, whenever splashes are expected, right? Not only gowns, but, as well as goggles to protect the eyes, okay. Gowns are usually disposable. And again, they’re there to protect the healthcare worker from fluids, from splashes.  Eye wear, there are different types, right? There are both goggles, which are preferable for people who wear, who DON’T wear glasses, I should say, but whenever COVID first hit, and even still today, I myself, we had to come up with a solution for me. I wear something like what we see over here on the right, a full face shield. Again, the entire idea is right, just like in our previous slide with our surgical masks being used to protect our nose and mouth, our mucus membranes from droplets, we have to protect our eyes as well. And in these instances, we’re going to use things such as goggles and face shields. 

So now what are the types of precautions that we’re going to see used and implemented in the hospital whenever we’re taking care of patients. And it’s important to know that the type of PPE that we’re going to select and use is going to be directly based on what type of precautions our patient’s in. Now, the first thing that we have here are standard precautions. And it’s important to know that these precautions are used on all patients, right? These are, think about them as “The Standard”. They are the standard precautions that we use for all patients. It’s the foundation from which we build upon, right? And what this primary, primarily consists of is both hand hygiene, as well as gloves (ignore that chicken scratch). These are the standard precautions we’re going to use for all patients, right? PPE being gloves, and implementing hand hygiene with all patients. 

Now, what are the actual transmission based precautions, right? The way in which illnesses or diseases can be transmitted from patient to healthcare provider. The first transmission precaution that we’re going to see are contact precautions. These are the types of precautions in which a patient has a disease or an illness that can be transmitted through touch, right? So the types of PPE that we’re going to see, it’s also important to note, before I continue, as well with these transmission precautions, is that all of our transmission precautions include our standard precautions plus something extra, right? They always include our standard precautions. So we’re always going to do proper hand hygiene, and we’re always going to wear gloves plus a couple of extra things, right? So contact precautions, we’re going to implement our standard precautions plus, not only the use of gloves, but as well as the use of gowns. We’re going to make sure that we want to prevent, we want to provide a barrier between us and coming in contact with that patient. This could be instances such as C. diff, right? An illness such as C. diff, clostridium difficile, contact based transmissible illnesses. 

Next thing will be droplet precautions, right? So it’s important to note, we’re going to use standard precautions plus a little something extra with droplet. And what is the little something extra? We’re going to be seeing masks, primarily surgical masks, being used. Again, we’ll recall that droplet based precautions, droplets are transmitted through our mucus membrane. So we want to make sure that we’re protecting our nose and our mouth. And you would likely also see eye protection, as well, being used in cases where a patient is on droplet precautions. Again, droplets can also get in through those mucosal eye membranes. So we want to make sure that we’re also protecting our eyes. And this could be in instances where a patient has the flu, for instance, a droplet-based transmissible illness.

And last, but not least, our airborne precautions. You can guess it, we’re going to be looking at respirators being used here with our airborne precautions. Again, we’re wanting something such as an N95 or that PAPR that I mentioned in order to make sure that we protect our respiratory system from any inhaled pathogen, right? And the biggest one that we know about these days is COVID, coronavirus-19, as well as things such as tuberculosis. These are airborne transmitted illnesses, and these are the different types of precautions that we’re going to be using. Standard being used on all patients and then all of our other precautions dictating what kind of PPE we’ll end up using. 

So to summarize some of our key points surrounding isolation precautions, as well as personal protective equipment, understand that we have various different types of PPE, primarily gloves, gowns, masks, and goggles, and also make sure that you’re familiar with the different types of PPE, the different variations therein. Also make sure that you understand that the way in which we choose which PPE we’re going to use are based on what type of precautions our patient is actually on. Knowing that  standard precautions are the foundational, they are the standard precautions that we’re going to use for all patients, which includes hand hygiene and the use of gloves. And then also understand that all of our transmission based precautions include our standard precautions, plus a little something extra.

Guys, I hope that this video helped you understand PPE as well as the various types of isolation, precautions that a patient may be in. I hope that you guys go out there and be your best selves today. And as always, happy nursing.