On High Alert: Infection Prevention Practices for the Operating Room

A short, effective infection prevention training program for all healthcare professionals who provide pre-, intra-, or post-operative care to surgical patients.

Learning Objective: To help healthcare professionals in the perioperative environment understand the principles of asepsis in order to meet national goals for the prevention of surgical site infections.

Surgical site infections (SSI) occur in over 500K patients per year, and represent one fourth of all healthcare-associated infections. SSI can have potentially dire consequences to the patient, including suffering, delayed recovery/extended hospital stays with increased costs, and death.

The fundamental goal of the surgical team is to prevent SSI, and the best way to accomplish this is through aseptic technique. Therefore, every member of the surgical team must understand the general principles of asepsis/infection control in the perioperative setting, and incorporate these principles into everyday practice.

This program addresses the following:

• Adherence to Standard Precautions and Transmission-based Precautions
• Adherence to Principles of Asepsis (skin prep, draping, sterile vs. non-sterile)
• Maintaining and Monitoring the Surgical Field including Traffic Patterns
• Antimicrobial Prophylaxis
• Environmental Cleaning
• Post-operative Surveillance for SSI

• General Orientation
• Annual In-Service
• Mandatory Training
• Nursing Education
• Nursing Student Education
• Risk/remedial training

From Top To Bottom: Cleaning Operating and Procedure Rooms

10 minutes

This program provides an in-depth demonstration and explanation of cleaning and disinfecting protocols for the operating room and other procedure areas.

Fire Safety in the Operating Room: Strategies for Keeping It Safe

21 minutes

Approximately 100 fires occur in the operating room every year, many times with devastating effects. It is vital that staff who work in the surgical environment be familiar with fire prevention strategies and what to do if a fire does occur.

Infection Control for General Orientation: What You Need to Know

15 minutes

Infection prevention is everybody’s responsibility. This program highlights all of the required infection control issues in only 15 minutes!

Partners in Care…Advance Directives for Patient Education (Program One)

11 minutes

This program alerts patients of the need to address personal choices regarding death or dying and communcating those choices to family and healthcare providers.