Important interventions in the operating room to prevent bacterial contamination and surgical site infections - 23/08/22
, Karin Falk-Brynhildsen, PhD b, Ann-Sofie Sundqvist, PhD aHighlights |
• | Swedish operating rooms nurses state that in their view skin disinfection is the most important intervention in order to prevent bacterial contamination and surgical site infection. |
• | The responses indicated that many nurses believed patients’ skin to be sterile after the skin disinfection process. |
• | The erroneous assumption that the skin is sterile after skin disinfection needs to be acknowledged by all working within the operating room. |
Résumé |
Background |
The aim of this study was to explore interventions that Swedish operating room (OR) nurses considered important for the prevention of bacterial contamination and surgical site infections (SSIs).
Methods |
A web-based cross-sectional survey with an open-ended question was answered by OR nurses and analyzed using summative content analysis and descriptive statistics.
Results |
The OR nurses (n = 890) worked within 11 surgical specialties and most of them worked at university hospitals (37%) or county hospitals (53%). The nurses described twelve important interventions to prevent bacterial contamination and SSI: skin disinfection (25.9%), the OR environment (18.2%), aseptic technique (16.4%), OR clothes (13.4%), draping (9.8%), preparation (6.1%), dressing (3.6%), basic hygiene (3.4%), normothermia (2.1%), communication (0.7%), knowledge (0.3%), and work strategies (0.2%).
Discussion |
Skin disinfection was considered the most important intervention in order to prevent bacterial contamination and SSI. The responses indicated that many OR nurses believed the patients’ skin to be sterile after the skin disinfection process. This is not a certainty, but skin disinfection does significantly decrease the amount of bacterial growth.
Conclusions |
This study shows that many OR nurses' interventions are in line with recommendations. Although, knowledge regarding the effect of skin disinfection needs further research, and continued education.
Le texte complet de cet article est disponible en PDF.Key Words : Infection control, Perioperative, Surgical preparation, Infection prevention, Cross-infection
Plan
| Funding source: This study was funded by the Research Committee of Region Örebro County, Sweden. The funding body had no involvement in the design of the study, data collection, analysis, interpretation of data, writing of the manuscript, or decision to submit the manuscript for publication. |
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| Conflict of interest: None declared. |
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| Availability of data and materials: The datasets generated and/or analyzed during the current study are not publicly available due to ethical considerations of participant integrity, but are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request. |
Vol 50 - N° 9
P. 1049-1054 - septembre 2022 Retour au numéro
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