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NCLEX-RN Isolation Precautions Cheat Sheet (Free Printable)

The NCLEX hands you the lab reference ranges — it won't hand you isolation precautions. Knowing which disease needs airborne, droplet, or contact precautions (and the PPE that goes with each) is on you, and it's one of those topics where a single wrong detail — a surgical mask where an N95 was required — costs you the whole question.

So we built a one-page cheat sheet for the Airborne / Droplet / Contact framework, and checked every disease on it line-by-line against the CDC's own precautions table.

NCLEX-RN Isolation Precautions Cheat Sheet — airborne, droplet, and contact precautions at a glance

Tap to open the full-size image in a new tab.

A few of the details the exam loves to test:

  • Airborne (measles, TB, varicella) needs a fit-tested N95 — a surgical mask is the wrong answer.
  • C. diff means soap and water, not alcohol sanitizer (it doesn't kill the spores) — plus contact precautions.
  • Negative pressure keeps germs in (protect others from the patient); positive pressure keeps germs out (protect the immunocompromised patient). Don't flip them.

Want to practice spotting them under pressure? NCLEX Kingdom has 4,000+ NCLEX-style questions — start free in your browser →.