Welcome to the Wild West: Mentoring New Staff in Perioperative Services

Session Description: With increasing diversity in the background of infection prevention, approaching the perioperative service line can be daunting. In this session, new and seasoned infection preventionists will learn strategies to acquaint themselves, as well as new staff members, with the workflow, equipment, and evidence-based strategies to prevent surgical site infections (SSIs). Unlike hospital-acquired infections associated with indwelling devices, such as central line-associated bloodstream infections (CLABSIs) and catheter-associated urinary tract infections (CAUTIs), the prevention of SSIs is largely dependent on process monitoring. By empowering the infection preventionist with strategies on how best to orient themselves to the operations of the operating room, recognize common missed opportunities, and understand where to locate evidence-based guidelines to inform their recommendations, this session will enable staff to better support hospital-associated infection prevention at their facility.

Unfortunately, the prevention of surgical site infections often takes a passive approach. While chart review is beneficial to a certain degree, there is added value in observing practice, obtaining feedback from frontline perioperative staff, as well as engaging in conversation with surgeons and operating room leadership. In order to best do this, infection preventionists need to be familiar with sterile technique, the instruments and equipment used in the operating room, and with methods to help monitor compliance. This session will provide a roadmap on orientation to the operating room, provide valuable resources for SSI prevention, and share audit tools that will help the new infection preventionist on sustained growth in this increasingly complex area of healthcare.