SURGICAL HANDWASHING
Surgical asepsis: the hands should be thoroughly cleansed for about 3 to 5 minutes (in operation room, hands are scrubbed up to 10 minutes)
Surgical Scrub
- Wet hands and forearms
- Apply soap (containing 3% hexachlorophene) to make a good lather
- Clean under nails, which should be kept very short (30 seconds)
- Rinse thoroughly
- Apply soap to hand and arms again
- Scrub with brush so that every area receives 15 to 30 strokes
- Add small amount of water frequently and use just enough detergent to maintain lather
- Rinse the arms and hands
- In rinsing keep palms higher than the elbow so that water does not run over palms from the arms
- Dry on a sterile towel moving from the palms to the arms
General Instructions
- When washing hands, they are held above the level of the elbow (in surgical asepsis the elbow are considered more contaminated than the hands)
- The water should run from least contaminated are hands to the area of great contamination (elbows)
- It is important to put soap well and scrub with a brush and rinse thoroughly with water several times
- A sterile towel is used to wipe the hands and arms. Starting from the palms to the elbows
- The gown is to worn by the infected person when he is transported outside his room. The gown prevents the patients contaminated clothing from touching clean areas
- The gowns are worn by the nurses who caring for the persons whose resistance to infection is diminished, e.g. premature babies
- The outside of the gown is considered to be highly contaminated and the inside of the gown is considered to be clean
- If the gown is to be re-used, hang the gown inside the patients unit with the contaminated side folded out
- Hang the gown outside the patients unit with the contaminated side folded in
