When should I expect staff to clean their hands?
Staff should clean their hands:
- before touching you
- before doing your wound care or touching your drain or device, for example a cannula (drip)
- after wound care or touching your drain or device
- after touching you and before touching the next person
- after touching the area around you
It is OK to ask staff to clean their hand before caring for you
How do I take care of my cannula (drip)?
Nurses and doctors should clean their hands before touching your cannula
Your cannula should be checked regularly for signs of irritation, infection or blockage
What can you do to help care for your cannula?
- Try not to touch your cannula
- Protect your cannula from being knocked or pulled
- Let your nurse know if you have pain or tenderness around your cannula
- The clear dressing over your cannula is water resistant but please try not to soak your cannula
- Following your shower, please pat dry the dressing
- Do not be afraid to remind staff to wash their hands before touching your cannula
- If your cannula falls out, please apply pressure to the site and call your nurse
How can I talk to an Infection Control nurse?
There are some infectious conditions that the Infection Control nurse will be notified of and they will visit to discuss and provide information while you are in hospital.
If you would like to talk to one of our Infection Control nurses, please ask the nurse caring for you to contact the Infection Control team to arrange a visit.
Why do I need to shower before surgery?
When you are healthy your body has very good ways of fighting infection. One of the first lines of defence is our skin.
When you come into hospital to have surgery, this first line of defence will be broken. This can happen when you have a drip put in. It can also happen as a result of the surgical cut through your skin.
When these things happen there is a small chance that your normal germs, or germs from another person or the environment can get into your body and cause an infection.
There are a things you can do to make this less likely to happen.
Using special pre-operative body wash
You may have been provided with a special type of skin cleaner to use in the days before you come to hospital for surgery. This before-surgery (preoperative) body wash will help reduce the amount of bacteria and germs on your skin.
Even if you haven’t been given a special body wash, you should still have a shower using a good lather of skin cleaner on the morning of your surgery. Do not use harsh soaps that damage your skin.
Also, a risk in any surgery is that the surgical site may become infected with bacteria from your own skin. In the operating room all staff and equipment have followed a strict disinfection procedure. The surgical site is cleaned, but it is important to wash your whole body if you have been given a before-surgery body wash.
Follow all pre-operative instructions given to you by healthcare staff.