Final answer:
The term for infection control measures with barrier protection and work practice controls is known as standard precautions. These precautions are essential to prevent the spread of infections among patients and healthcare providers, by ensuring hand hygiene and using personal protective equipment (PPE) like gloves and face masks.
Step-by-step explanation:
The term for infection control measures that involve barrier protection and work practice controls to prevent contact with infectious body fluids from all patients is known as standard precautions. These precautions are a set of infection control practices used to prevent transmission of diseases that can be acquired by contact with blood, body fluids, non-intact skin (including rashes), and mucous membranes. These measures are applied to every patient to ensure that health-care workers avoid spreading infections, especially when they are unsure if the patient is infectious or not.
In practices involving direct contact with patients, standard precautions highlight the importance of hand hygiene, appropriate use of personal protective equipment (PPE), safe injection practices, and proper handling of potentially contaminated equipment or surfaces in the patient environment. By assuming that all bodily fluids are potentially infectious, medical professionals operate under a safeguard principle to protect themselves and others. Items like gloves, face masks, and protective eyewear act as barriers, while careful management and sterilization of instruments play a significant role in maintaining aseptic technique.
These strategies are particularly crucial in settings where there is a high risk of transmission of diseases, such as hospitals, clinics, and laboratories. By adhering to these precautions, healthcare workers can minimize the risk of healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) and protect both themselves and their patients from potential infections, including Hepatitis B and HIV. Clinical practices, including blood tests and surgery, are therefore conducted within sterile environments to prevent sepsis and the spread of pathogens.