Surgical site infections are one the most common type of hospital-acquired infection, even in occurrence with pneumonia. This is an ongoing problem in today’s health care system. Nurses have many duties to the patient by implementing and following protocols to prevent infections and should also work with the whole health care team to avoid them.
Preventing surgical site infections is very important in the perioperative environment. This is so important that the CDC and Hospital Infection Control Practices Advisory Committee released a guideline for health care workers to follow when caring for clients at risk. This guideline is appointed for all health care workers directly involved with surgical patients to provide the best care possible …show more content…
Many interventions that could be used by nurses today to prevent surgical site infections include: hand hygiene, taking vital signs, making sure that they use personal protective equipment in the OR, administering prophylactic antibiotics if ordered, allowing the patient to wash with a skin prep if ordered, cutting hair off of the surgical site instead of shaving, maintaining sterile technique in the OR and making sure others do the same, and continuously monitor the incision site for infection after the surgery is finished. If these interventions are not done, this exposes the patient to numerous types of bacteria that could be potentially infectious to the patient.
It is the perioperative nurse’s job to work with the other health care workers to keep the patient safe and be a patient advocate. The Infection Preventionist nurse and the Perioperative nurse should closely work together during the preoperative, operative, and postoperative setting to ensure that the patient is well protected. They should focus on planning and implementing the best evidence based care …show more content…
Another piece of evidence that should be addressed is the fact that about 75,000 patients with health care associated infections had died in that very same year. The Center of Disease Control and Prevention researched these statistics. By having a very accredited facility come out with these huge statistics, this can show nurses and other healthcare professionals how accurate and serious this problem is. Just one fact can change a nurse’s perspective in performing the best evidence based practice for infection control.
Another meaningful statistic stated by Mayfield (2014), is that the two most common hospital acquired infections were surgical site infections and pneumonia, both at 22%. Also, the use of devices in the hospital such as: urinary catheters, central lines, and ventilators, have about 26% in the cause of either the surgical site infections or pneumonia. Having nurses and other health care staff know this, it provides factual information and a tool for them to use when watching for and preventing any type of nosocomial
Preventing surgical site infections is very important in the perioperative environment. This is so important that the CDC and Hospital Infection Control Practices Advisory Committee released a guideline for health care workers to follow when caring for clients at risk. This guideline is appointed for all health care workers directly involved with surgical patients to provide the best care possible …show more content…
Many interventions that could be used by nurses today to prevent surgical site infections include: hand hygiene, taking vital signs, making sure that they use personal protective equipment in the OR, administering prophylactic antibiotics if ordered, allowing the patient to wash with a skin prep if ordered, cutting hair off of the surgical site instead of shaving, maintaining sterile technique in the OR and making sure others do the same, and continuously monitor the incision site for infection after the surgery is finished. If these interventions are not done, this exposes the patient to numerous types of bacteria that could be potentially infectious to the patient.
It is the perioperative nurse’s job to work with the other health care workers to keep the patient safe and be a patient advocate. The Infection Preventionist nurse and the Perioperative nurse should closely work together during the preoperative, operative, and postoperative setting to ensure that the patient is well protected. They should focus on planning and implementing the best evidence based care …show more content…
Another piece of evidence that should be addressed is the fact that about 75,000 patients with health care associated infections had died in that very same year. The Center of Disease Control and Prevention researched these statistics. By having a very accredited facility come out with these huge statistics, this can show nurses and other healthcare professionals how accurate and serious this problem is. Just one fact can change a nurse’s perspective in performing the best evidence based practice for infection control.
Another meaningful statistic stated by Mayfield (2014), is that the two most common hospital acquired infections were surgical site infections and pneumonia, both at 22%. Also, the use of devices in the hospital such as: urinary catheters, central lines, and ventilators, have about 26% in the cause of either the surgical site infections or pneumonia. Having nurses and other health care staff know this, it provides factual information and a tool for them to use when watching for and preventing any type of nosocomial