The Wearing of Facial Protection in High-Risk Environments: The Non-Compliance of Healthcare Workers with Universal Precautions

The term Universal Precautions (UP) originates from the Centre for Disease Control (CDC) in Atlanta (Taylor 1993). The precautions recognise that it is safer for all patients to be treated as potentially infective, whatever their status in life. The basic aim of UP is to lower the level of contact with blood or body fluids. This reduces the risk to all personnel of contact with blood born viruses and pathogenic organisms carried in other body fluids (Wicker 1991). The precautions recognise that there are high risk environments rather than high risk patients.