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!

[NicuGal, MSN, RN]

I'm with Steve...I don't get what humidity you are talking about. Actually, we don't just change them for maintence...if you go to IHI.org and look at bundles, you will see that changing isolettes is recommended, esp with long term kids, with or without humidity. Think about what can grow in there, esp with things that spill like HAL from leaking IV's or formula/MBM that gets spilled. Great medium for bacteria. As for humidity in the Vent tubing, that is controlled usually by what temp the humidifier is set at, usually around core body temp. We get occas rainout with hotter beds, but it is pretty rare. VAP is more contributed to other things, as once again evidenced by IHI bundles.

We change beds according to the manufacter's recommendation, which is every one to two weeks if stable.

[lmcnabbkv]

2 weeks for ours