infection prevention
infection prevention
By Jill E . Holdsworth , MS , CIC , FAPIC , NREMT , CRCST
Infection Prevention and Surgeon Collaboration : The Secret Sauce to Working Together
Surgeons will become interested in what the infection prevention department is doing when they see there is something that interests them , that IP is invested in them and / or their program or that IP shows them how beneficial and inclusive the programs are for their practice .
Gaining trust , building relationships , and putting in the effort up front is key to a successful partnership between infection prevention and our surgeon partners .”
Preventing surgical site infections ( SSIs ) can seem very daunting to infection preventionsists ( IPs ) and one of the hardest parts of forming an interdisciplinary team can be finding an engaged surgeon champion who wants to make changes globally for all service lines . Where do you start with surgeon engagement ? How do you involve physicians in general to partner for success ? I have found a multi-factorial approach is the best way to go when working on any type of healthcare-acquired infection ( HAI ), but it is even more important when tackling SSIs .
Finding Common Ground : I have heard physicians say that finding something that we both find important to connect with is the key to starting a partnership . In other words , “ What ’ s in it for me ?” Most physicians have a to-do list that the infection prevention department can help them with , but they don ’ t know where to start . Once you begin a partnership with SSI work , you can start to learn what they have on their minds , form action plans and get to work . One personal tip — work on things that are service-line specific with your surgeon champions , so the tasks are personalized and feel very tailored to their needs .
Rounding Together : How often do you round with your surgical teams ? I have one warning for you — you will need to wake up very early . The rewards far outweigh the lack of sleep . When I started rounding with our ENT / head and neck surgical team , I first had to walk in with my hands in the air and tell them I am honestly here to learn from them , not to audit . As IPs , it ’ s very hard to round anywhere or with anyone and not be viewed as the “ auditor ” or “ surveyor .” I made it a habit to not bring a notebook or anything to write on to prove I was there to simply observe , learn and see what they did each morning . To be honest , this took some time before we all built trust with each other , but when this happened , the results were more than we could have asked for . They started calling me when they found issues , they invited us to their resident education sessions to discuss certain topics like skin prep , hand hygiene , scope processes , etc . We even found common ground in the operating room , where we improved the pre-op clipping process with our head and neck surgeries , skin prep , and understanding how to check sterile indicators in instrumentation — all because the infection prevention team put away its clipboards and were humble enough to learn and observe first and put building relationships first .
Our SSI champion as well as head and neck surgeon , Dr . Brian Boyce , says , “ Collaborating with our infection prevention team has been critical to the success in reducing post-operative surgical infections in our patients . Our infection prevention team brings a unique perspective to the entire perioperative process that enabled us to identify and mitigate risk factors for SSI .”
Involving the Residents : As mentioned above , residents can be your most influential asset when learning about the opportunities and challenges or barriers in various aspects of prevention infections .
Surgical Instruments : Show the surgeon . Have you ever gone through the surgical set with the surgeon ? Give it a try . Going through each set , inspecting the instrumentation in each set together as a team and using this as a quality tool for the surgical team , infection prevention department and sterile processing department can help everyone . This is something we did with our ENT resident team and surgical attending , which also let us know we needed to do additional education on how to look for holes in wrappers and how to verify sterilization from the chemical indicator in the tray . For facilities who have residents , you may find they are taught by the resident prior to them , and prior to them , and so on . If you can teach them right the first time , they will start teaching those who follow in their footsteps correctly . Start asking yourself the question , how do my residents get education on an annual or routine basis on all infection prevention items ? Once you learn this answer , insert yourself into that process .
In summary , surgeons will become interested in what the infection prevention department is doing when they see there is something that interests them , that infection prevention is invested in them and / or their program or that our department shows them how beneficial and inclusive the programs are for their practice . Gaining trust , building relationships , and putting in the effort up front is key to a successful partnership between infection prevention and our surgeon partners .
Jill E . Holdsworth , MS , CIC , FAPIC , NREMT , CRCST , is manager of the Infection Prevention Department at Emory University Hospital Midtown in Atlanta , and is currently co-chair of the AAMI PB70 Committee .
10 may 2023 • www . healthcarehygienemagazine . com