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S U R G I C A L
S K I N
A N T I S E P S I S
Sharon L. Butler, MSN, RN
Stanford, Calif.
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Pre
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TOO MANY OPTIONS With iodine-based prepping, nurses at
Stanford University Hospital and Clinics were too often conjuring cocktails that had little basis in best practices.
How we secured frontline buy-in
and ensure continued compliance.
Y
resulted in lower infection rates
and increased satisfaction
ou know there's trou-
across the front line. Let's look at how
ble with your skin-
you can standardize patient skin prep-
prepping protocols
ping as part of a surgical site infection
when nurses act more
process improvement project.
like bartenders than
caregivers, mixing 1%, 2% or 3%
1. Convince with data
iodines with alcohol for surgeons who
Surgeons have 1 of 2 attitudes toward
don't use single-use chlorhexidine and
prepping: They're ritualistic and con-
povidone-iodine products. That's the
vinced change will end in disaster, or
reality we faced before surgeons and
they don't think it makes any differ-
nurses partnered to limit available
ence whatsoever. To dispel both
prepping options to 3 products, which
notions, form a staff research team to
M O N T H 2014 | S U P P L E M E N T
TO
O U T PAT I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E O N L I N E
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