Respiratory Hygiene and Cough Etiquette
Key Points
- Respiratory hygiene applies to clients, visitors, and staff with cough, congestion, or increased respiratory secretions.
- Core elements include education, posted symptom-control signage, cough source control, hand hygiene after secretions, and waiting-area spacing.
- Coughing individuals should cover coughs/sneezes with tissue and discard promptly or wear a surgical mask for source control.
- Healthcare personnel evaluating symptomatic clients should wear a mask and perform frequent hand hygiene.
Core Elements
- Provide education to staff, clients, and visitors.
- Post instructions in languages appropriate for the served population.
- Apply source control for coughing persons (tissue use/disposal or surgical mask).
- Perform hand hygiene after contact with respiratory secretions.
- Maintain spatial separation in common waiting areas (ideally over 3 feet when feasible).
Staff Safety Expectations
- Staff with respiratory infection should stay home or avoid direct patient care, especially with high-risk clients.
- If direct care cannot be avoided, wear a mask during care activities.
Related Concepts
- standard-precautions - Respiratory hygiene is a baseline component.
- hand-hygiene - Required after contact with respiratory secretions.
- personal-protective-equipment - Mask and eye protection selection by exposure risk.
- transmission-based-precautions - Additional controls for suspected droplet/airborne spread.
Self-Check
- What source-control action should be implemented first for a coughing patient in a waiting area?
- Why are multilingual signage and visitor education part of infection-control safety?