Abstract

INFECTION CONTROL PRACTICE DURING ANESTHESIA

Mohammed Hadi Jebur* and Mubeen Ali Mousa

Abstract

Anesthesia providers commonly cross-contaminate their workspace and subsequently put patients at risk for a health care−acquired infection. The primary objective of this project was to determine if education and implementation of standardized infection control guidelines. Methods: Patient care−related to hand hygiene of nurse anesthetists was observed in 3 areas of anesthesia practice before and 3 weeks and 3 months after staff education, Results: There were a total of 95 observations performed during the 3 observation periods. When compared with preimplementation baseline data, there was an increase in the number of providers compliant with hand hygiene practices after airway instrumentation (P = .000). Conclusions: Education, visual reminders, and standardized infection control guidelines were shown to improve compliance with infection control best practices in a group of nurse anesthetists.

Keywords: Infection, Anesthesia.