more blankets. Now, we place a single warmed blanket on top of the
forced-air warming gown, mainly for privacy purposes in the hall-
ways. The forced-air warming gowns are single-use, so we don't need
to clean or wash them like we did the mountains of cotton blankets
1 4 • O U T PA T I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E • M A Y 2 0 2 0
You can't fix what you don't measure. Before
conducting a study on the effectiveness of our
hospital's prewarming practices, we didn't
have a documented baseline of how many
patients were hypothermic during surgery.
That was partly due to a lack of consistent
documentation in the OR of patient tempera-
tures by our anesthesia providers. They moni-
tored patients' temperatures, but weren't
keeping a record of it.
Because implementing our prewarming
protocols was a nurse-driven project, we did-
n't have the ability to make it standard prac-
tice for the anesthesia department to docu-
ment temperatures taken in the OR. We encouraged it, though, and
still do.
To make patient temperature documentation a standard of care in
your facility, we recommend creating a standardized practice for cap-
turing readings. This practice should include the type of method used
and when temperature readings should be captured. Be sure your staff
buys into the practice and don't forget to secure the support of your
anesthesia providers.
— Marci D. Trump, MSN, RN, CNOR; Adrianna Medina, RN, CNOR;
and Denise Rainier, MBA, BSN, RN
Talk About Taking Temperatures
• HOT TOPIC Make sure staff agree on a
method for measuring patients' tempera-
tures and apply it consistently.