Pre/post-hospital shower?

[Dewgrl]

Reading an article about hospital aquired infections, it linked to a website called RID. In the site it advises to wash with 4% chlorihexidine soap before surgery. I was wondering, is this effective? Could there be a benfit to scrubbing down with this at home to not carry in/out the bugs that live in our ICU.

(We have had ton's of MRSA, C-diff, Staph, etc... show up.)

[lsyorke, RN]

I would think that this would do a number on your skin with repeated uses. Good old soap and water for me!

[carolinapooh, BSN, RN]

I speak with complete inexperience here, but I already have a problem with all this antibacterial stuff people scour their homes with now. I plan on leaving my shoes in the garage, and I'll wash my scrubs separately from other laundry (they'll even have their own hamper), but I'll take showers with normal soap.

I have antibacterial soap in the bathrooms and at the kitchen sink, and I do wipe the kitchen counters down with Clorox wipes, but I'm not an antigerm junkie. I'll run the dishwasher at the hottest setting if I have a plate I used for raw meat or chicken, and I'm sure the dishwasher soap has antigerm stuff in it, but that's my limit. After you've lived in the Middle East and eaten in restaurants that were potentially prime breeding grounds for hepatitis and bought strawberries grown in Egypt (rumor has it that they use, AHEM, natural fertilizers, potentially of the HUMAN variety) you tend to get over all this germ stuff a bit. (I'm not CARELESS, mind you, and I'm not crazy either - but if you've ever been over there you'd see my point.)

I'd have to see what the "bring-home infection rate", if you will, is before I'd take showers in practically Rx-level soap. If someone with a nasty bug vomited or pooed on me, I'd wrap my scrubs in a plastic bag and not wear them into the house, but that's about it, I think.

Avian flu is another matter entirely....if that jumped species and I had to work during the epidemic, I don't even know if I'd go home every night.

ETA: I didn't even think about what it would do to your skin. Good point. I mean, chlorhexidine is in Magic Mouthwash - it kills EVERYTHING....eeewwwww...

[mandana]

I leave my scrubs and shoes in the garage. My shoes never come in, and my scrubs don't come in until I'm ready to throw them in the washer.

I do use Chlorhexidine to shower if I've had a particularly gross/infectious day, but I don't use it daily. I have two young kids, so it's important to me not to drag stuff home to them. I've never brought anything home to them, but they go to daycare, and they've brought TONS of things home to me.

Amanda

[sharann, BSN, RN]

I wish every patient got a shower with soap and water(even just water would be nice) before surgery. Some people are really stinky and dirty. I am talking about dirt caked on their feet and bad BO and grimy hair. I am not talking about the poor schizo or comatose patients, just the normal elective cases and ambulatory ones.

[prmenrs, RN]

Before I had my hysterectomy, the doc told me to shower w/Hibiclens, and to shave my own self. It was a one time thing, and I'm sure I was thoroughly scrubbed in OR w/Betadine as usual. I guess the Hibiclens was kind of a "head start".

I wouldn't normally shower w/Hibiclens, but I work in a relatively "clean" area.

[TiffyRN, BSN, PhD]

This was on 20/20 (or was it Primetime?) the other night. The MD on there recommended the chlorhexidine scrub a couple of days preceding surgery. I had never heard of this before (as a home treatment) but it sounds right on to me. We routinely had orders for Chlorhexidine bath/shower x 1 or 2 (depending on the surgeon) preceding heart surgery. And I've heard of it ordered on infants (not fresh born) who had cultured MRSA on their skin (or umbilicus) but nowhere else.

I don't think we need to routinely scrub with it but I think using it before surgery sounds like a great idea.

[WOLFE, BSN, RN]

Prior to open heart surgery pts shower x 2 with the Chlorhexidine. However I can see this doing more harm than good with repeated uses if we were to start showering daily with it. Again as someone said good old soap and water.

[BGgirl]

We clean the area they're going to do surgery on with hibiclens before people go to surgery for pacer placement, pegs, open heart etc. We usually do it twice before they go. We sometime have orders for this ointment that goes in the nostrils before sugery also to kill off bacteria. I'm not sure the whole purpose for that.

[WOLFE, BSN, RN]

Staff lives on the skin...but it is not intended to be inside the pt...therfore the shower to almost "debacterialize" oneself..now prior to sx we do what is called a MRSA swab of the nose...if the pt tests positive they get the ointment for the nose. You want to prevent this bacteria from entering the body.