the bath on the morning of surgery. Repeat rinses get CHG going
down into the layers of the skin. That's how it gets its efficacy.
For your inpatients, help them with the bath the night before and
the morning of the surgery to assure that they've done it properly and
are getting the layering effect of the CHG. For those patients who
can't easily get to the shower, instruct them to use a CHG wipe on the
surgical site.
Improve and expand
We conducted post-education chart audits that showed that CHG
bathing rates improved by more than 20%. The project was expanded
to the pre-surgical area where nurses used CHG cloths to clean the
surgical site the day of surgery. We gave the same education to this
unit, which encouraged a renewed focus on the importance of CHG
bathing. As a result, CHG cloths were introduced in the unit for use
with non-ambulatory patients.
You want to keep those SSIs under control? Look at your current
rates of recorded baths being given to inpatients by doing a chart
review; provide education to those nurses on the floor to improve
compliance; and conduct another chart review afterwards to see if
your rates improved.
OSM
Ms. Morrison (denice.morrison@nkch.org) is perioperative education coor-
dinator at North Kansas City (Mo.) Hospital.
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