Changing behavior: evidence based practice supporting hair removal with clippers.

Area of Science:

• Nursing
• Infection Control
• Surgical Patient Care

Background:

• Surgical site infections (SSIs) account for 22% of healthcare-associated infections.
• The Joint Commission identified reducing healthcare-associated infections as a national patient safety goal.
• Current perioperative nursing practice often involves razors for hair removal, which can increase infection risk.

Purpose of the Study:

• To implement evidence-based practice by changing perioperative hair removal from razors to clippers.
• To reduce the incidence of surgical site infections in a large teaching hospital.
• To improve patient safety in the perioperative setting, particularly for Otorhinolaryngology (ORL) patients.

Main Methods:

• A project was initiated to transition perioperative nursing care from razors to clippers for hair removal.
• The change involved interdisciplinary collaboration and addressed the challenges of implementing new practices.
• The study describes the process of using evidence to drive behavioral change in perioperative nursing.

Main Results:

• Evidence indicates that using clippers immediately before surgery results in fewer surgical site infections compared to razors.
• Implementing clippers for hair removal is an easily modifiable extrinsic factor contributing to SSIs.
• Perioperative nurses play a key role in reducing SSIs through practice changes.

Conclusions:

• Changing perioperative hair removal practice from razors to clippers is an effective strategy to decrease surgical site infections.
• This evidence-based intervention supports national patient safety goals for infection reduction.
• Otorhinolaryngology patients undergoing procedures requiring hair removal are likely to benefit from this practice modification.