Effectiveness of Adding Disposable Brush to the Surgical Scrub Routines in Reducing Hand Bacterial Flora
Keywords:
Surgical Scrub, Brush, germs.Abstract
Background: The surgical scrub is an important surgical site infection prevention method, however the optimal surgical scrub procedure is still a matter of debate. This research aims to study the effectiveness of adding this new disposible brush into surgery nurses’ surgical scrub routines to reduce hand bacterial flora.
Methods: The research involves thirty two surgery nurses, which are randomly assigned into two groups. The first group uses the new brush during surgical scrub routines while the second control group do not. A sample from surgery nurses’ hands are taken before and after the surgical scrub procedure, then the number of colony forming units are counted by laboratory technician. Wilcoxon test is conducted to evaluate the difference of colony forming unit number before and after surgical scrubs in each group. Mann-Whitney test is conducted to evaluate the difference of colony forming unit number after surgical scrubs between the two group.
Results: Surgical scrub procedure with or without the use of brush effectively reduce the number of hand bacterial flora. The addition of brush to surgical scrub routines do not provide significant benefit in reducing hand bacterial flora. The use of brush is recommended for dirty nail and cuticles, however it must be a asingle use and disposible.
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