HHnurse

I found our policy on making saline in the home. after boiling the h2o and the jar in which it is to be stored our policy says 24hr at room temp and 1 wk in the frig. I'm curious as to the rational of dumping saline after 24hr ( store bought sterile). in the home where cross contamination is not a concern. plain saline doesn't really encourage growth of anything that I'm aware of. most if not all regulation are proably based off a hospital protical where cross contamination is a very major risk. Beth RN

By clean technique I mean using nonsterile gloves for the wound care. You do use minimal touching of the dressing materials. we do have pt shower with some wounds but not in general. and if your orders are for clean verses setrile dsg change the saline doesn't have to be sterile. I've know of times when Pt's don't want to spend the money on saline make it at home with boiled water and table salt. it's also common for pt to boil scissors and tweezers used in the dsg change between changes. BethRN

I know it's terrible to say but I don't know my agencies policy on saline. but the rule of thumb i personally use is the primary saline bottle remains refrigerated and is used to fill a spec cup from with the saline is actually use for the wound care. this prevents contamination of the saline. also most regs are based on hospital structure where cross contamination is a real risk. One thing I do know is we right all are wound care orders for clean technique not sterile which is a big difference. and in the home there is no increase risk of infection with clean verses sterile. BethRN