education — not just on her company's product but also on the other
antiseptic solutions. She has the PowerPoints and delivers a whole
education session on the differences between the various products,
why and when you should use each, and detailed instructions for use
and technique. Her role is education, not sales, so she does a really
thorough job addressing all the variations in prepping solutions and
techniques. It's not that we couldn't do this type of education in-house,
but it takes a lot of time to develop the content. If your vendors have
those resources readily available, why not take advantage?
Lessons learned
One thing our revised prepping protocol taught me is you can change
your culture simply through patience, persistence and transparency.
When we rolled out our skin antisepsis protocol 2 years ago, 77.1% of
staff complied with the designated prep gown requirement. Today, we're
at 100% compliance. In the beginning, staff used to say Why do we need
another gown? Now it's second nature, and whenever it's time to prep
they automatically ask Where's my pink gown?
OSM
D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 9 • O U T PA T I E N T S U R G E R Y. N E T • 5 9
Ms. Wilson (wilsonm@wvumedicine.edu) is the clinical preceptor of periopera-
tive services at West Virginia University Hospitals in Morgantown, W.Va.
