infection control

[RN4BABES]

I would like to know who might have a policy for changing incubators. Where I work, we do it every 7 days but am always wondering if this is really necessary?? Has there ever been a study/investigation about this in your unit? Thanks for your input in advance!

[Imafloat, BSN, RN]

We change them out every 7 days. Not sure if there has been a study done in my unit. Most of our policies are backed up with research so I am sure they researched the research.

[dawngloves, BSN, RN]

Here's a similar thread from earlier in the year:

https://allnurses.com/forums/f33/giraffe-beds-how-often-do-you-change-them-210770.html

[RN4BABES]

I went to the link about previous discussion on changing isolettes. We are not "allowed" to use those beloved Giraffes due to infection control reasons. Something to do with the humidity...of course we love those but the management is getting rid of them one by one. We have the new Drager "Caleo's" so they might/must be different in some regard! I am looking for any literature on infection control...if your unit's policies are based on studies...where are they? A colleague of mine searched the net for hours and came up with nothing! Would appreciate any links to published studies.... Does anyone else out there find the Caleo's difficult to maneuvre? (when changing them)

[RainDreamer, BSN, RN]

We change all or our beds out every 2 weeks.

We primarily use giraffes with and without humidity. If there is any sort of humidity in the bed, there is to be absolutely NO "pretty" blankets, stuffed animals, beanies, frogs, etc, etc. All that is allowed to be in there is the bottom sheet and the roll.

I don't know of any studies done regarding the bed changes and/or humidity. I know we had a lot of infection issues a couple of years ago, but we switched to doing sterile line changes and just being more aware of how we wash our hands and what we put in the bed and touch the baby with. Our infection rates have gone down drastically just doing those things, we never changed our bed changing policies.

[BittyBabyGrower, MSN, RN]

We change them every 2 weeks as per manufacturer's recommendations.

[RN4BABES]

what manufacturer? Who makes your incubators?

[SteveNNP, MSN, NP]

We use giraffe isolettes and omnibeds. They are changed every 30 days and prn. At my last job we changed them every 14 days, and used a mixture of Draeger Caleo and Giraffe beds. We use humidity on all our preemies.

[BittyBabyGrower, MSN, RN]

We have Dragers. All isolette manufacturers have recommended change times.

[faltura, RN]

Hi! Im an Infection Prevention and Control Nurse, as far as I know, you change the isolettes because of maintenance reasons. Just like in a normal private room, you have to transfer the patient after 15 days confinement to another room, so that we could do general cleaning for the room. Let us remember that the longer the hospitalization, the bigger the risk for Healthcare Acquired Infection (HAIs), so all of these are just preventive actions.

With the humidity, there is a belief that the higher the humidity the higher the risk for Ventilator Associated Pneumonia (VAP) although rcently, there was a research saying that increased humidification improve the mucociliary clearance of the patient's airway and Decrease incidence of airway infection.

Hope this could help

[SteveNNP, MSN, NP]

With the humidity, there is a belief that the higher the humidity the higher the risk for Ventilator Associated Pneumonia (VAP) although rcently, there was a research saying that increased humidification improve the mucociliary clearance of the patient’s airway and Decrease incidence of airway infection.

Hope this could help

But all the gases the baby are breathing come from outside the isolette, through the vent tubing (humidified and filtered)....unless you're talking about ventilator circuit humidity here..

[elizabells, BSN, RN]

But all the gases the baby are breathing come from outside the isolette, through the vent tubing (humidified and filtered)....unless you're talking about ventilator circuit humidity here..

I do sometimes notice more tubing rainout in the hotter, more humid isolettes. Of course, those new Fisher-Paykels we're using are much wetter than the old ones, so I dunno.