Outpatient Surgery Magazine, providing current information on Surgical Services, Surgical Facility Administration, Outpatient Surgery News and Trends, OR Excellence and more.
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cator is long enough to prevent your hand from touching the solution or the patient's skin), says AORN. Wear a long-sleeved scrub top or jacket to cover your arms while prepping. Wearing long-sleeved attire helps contain skin squames shed from bare arms, says AORN. 6. Don't remove hair. Don't remove the patient's hair at the surgical site — unless the hair interferes with the procedure, says AORN. When you remove hair, there's the potential for trauma to the skin, increasing the risk for an SSI. If hair removal is necessary for the procedure, remove it by using a clipper or a depilatory, outside of the OR or proce- dure area. 7. Prevent fires. Yes, "a messy prep is a good prep!" as Tara Flanagan, RN, director of nursing at the Ardmore (Okla.) Regional Surgery Center, points out, but don't let flammable skin antiseptics pool or soak into linens or the patient's hair. Communicate use of flam- mable skin antiseptics as part of the fire risk assessment involving the entire perioperative team before beginning a surgical procedure. 8. Keep it clean. To protect patients from invariable dripping and staining when using prep solutions in hand-held applicators, use cloth towels or chux pads to cover linens, gowns, tourniquets and the patient's hair, says Anthony Pierini, RN, charge nurse at Clark Fork Valley Hospital in Plains, Mont. "After prepping, ensure that towels are removed without contaminating the sterile field," he adds. Also protect electrodes and tourniquets from the dripping or pooling of skin antiseptics beneath and around the patient, says AORN. 9. Prevent skin irritation. Remove the antiseptic from the patient's skin following the procedure (unless otherwise indicated by the man- ufacturer's instructions), says AORN. 10. Pick the right prep. The clinical debate over the effectiveness of different antiseptic solutions continues, with neither the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention nor AORN definitively recommending 1 4 2 • O U T PA T I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E • J a n u a r y 2 0 1 7