A nurse is admitting a client who has pertussis. Which of the following types of transmission-based precautions should the nurse initiate?

Pertussis, also known as whooping cough, is caused by Bordetella pertussis and is transmitted through large respiratory droplets produced when an infected person coughs, sneezes, or talks. Large droplets do not remain suspended in the air for extended periods and typically travel no more than three feet, which distinguishes droplet transmission from airborne transmission. Droplet precautions are therefore the appropriate transmission-based precaution for pertussis, requiring the nurse to wear a surgical mask when within three feet of the client and to place the client in a private room or cohort with another client with the same infection. Contact precautions are used for infections spread by direct or indirect contact with the client or their environment, such as C. diff or methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, and do not address respiratory droplet spread. Protective precautions, also called reverse isolation, are used for immunocompromised clients to protect them from environmental pathogens — not applicable here. Airborne precautions, which require a negative-pressure room and N95 respirators, are reserved for pathogens that travel on very small particles over longer distances, such as tuberculosis, measles, and varicella. Pertussis does not meet this criterion.