In January, 2003, the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) issued a Sentinel Event Alert regarding acquired infections (Beyea). The report presented distressing news regarding iatrogenic infections: the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimated more than two million hospitalized patients contract iatrogenic infections in the United States every year and as many as 90,000 of them die from these infections. Surgical site infections (SSIs) are the second most common cause of nosocomial infections, and up to two percent to five percent of patients undergoing clean extraabdominal surgery and up to 20 percent of those undergoing intraabdominal surgery will develop SSIs (Bratzler and Houck 706). The CDC estimates as many as 50,000 SSIs occur each year in the United States, and patients who develop SSIs are up to 60 percent more likely to spend time in an intensive care unit, are five times more likely to be readmitted to hospital, and twice as likely to die than patients without SSIs. Health care costs are increased substantially for patients who develop an SSI.
Nurses have always played a crucial role in preventing infections, and with the development today of new infections and of antibiotic resistant strains of bacteria emerging, the role of nurses in preventing infections is even more critical to the patients' well-being (Beyea). Perioperative nurses need to review their roles in infection prevention, and adjust their clinical practice in surgical settings to reflect these developing problems. Nurses may be the only people who notice suboptimal practices of antibiotic prophylaxis in surgical settings, and it is up to them to draw attention to such practices and be instrumental in making the necessary changes. Patient safety in surgical settings must be the number one priority for nurses. Perioperative nurses have the responsibility of ensuring correct sterile procedures are ...