time the caregiver doesn't know the
complications of something they're in
charge of managing."
• Increased infection risk. About one-
third of the nurses (34%) were unaware
of the relationship between hypother-
mia and SSI risk. "There are many fac-
tors that impact post-op infections,"
says Dr. Giuliano. "But one thing you
can do to decrease the risk is to make
sure patients' temperatures stay within
a normothermic range during surgery."
Warming trends
The best way to do that might be to
"bank" a patient's body temperature
against the chilling effects of surgery.
Warming patients in pre-op could prevent hypothermia from setting in
immediately after anesthesia induction, when warm blood flows from
the body's core and mixes with the cooler blood in the body's periph-
ery. As the cooler blood circulates back to the core, redistribution
hypothermia can occur.
"Warmed cotton blankets are a patient satisfaction staple, but you
can't depend on blankets to keep patients warm throughout their
stay," says Marie Bashaw DNP, RN, NEA-BC, an associate professor of
nursing at Hartwick College in Oneonta, N.Y. "They're best used in
combination with other warming methods."
Those options include forced-air warming gowns, conductive blan-
kets and mattresses placed over and under patients, reflective thermal
blankets that trap the patient's own body heat and warm circulating
O C T O B E R 2 0 1 8 • O U T PA T I E N T S U R G E R Y. N E T • 5 7
KHV
\G
UR
SD
HUP
UV
s
• GOOD START Warmed cotton blankets are a def-
inite patient satisfier, but should be used in combi-
nation with active warming methods.
Pamela
Bevelhymer,
RN,
BSN,
CNOR
