Skin Antisepsis and Processing Flexible Endoscopes: Two Presentations at AORN

Amber Wood MSN, RN, CNOR, CIC, FAPIC, senior perioperative practice specialist at the Association of periOperative Registered Nurses (AORN), spoke with Infection Control Today^® (ICT^®) about her 2 presentations at the Association of PeriOperative Nurses (AORN) 2023 Conference in San Antonio, Texas, held from April 1-4, 2023. Woods’ presentations were “Updated AORN Guidelines for Processing Flexible Endoscopes” and “PREP-IT: Skin Antisepsis for Open Fractures.”

Wood discussed her presentations, including whether the AORN’s guidelines differ from AAMI’s or whether the associations work together to create 1 set of guidelines. She mentioned that the one significant change that AORN made is, “We found many studies about the issues we have with the drying of endoscopes, how that retain moisture in into scopes have led to patient infections, biofilm development, contamination, and just a lot of concerns there. There is a new recommendation to dry endoscopes with pressure-regulated instruments or HEPA filters for a minimum of 10 minutes.

When asked what she hoped attendees would take away from this year’s AORN conference, Wood said, “More than ever, I felt the need for us to come together to focus on our well-being and mental health and [to support] each other. There's been a fun vibe here of socializing, connecting, and supporting each other as our field has struggled. We've been struggling with burnout and supply chain issues. There have been so many challenges.”

Wood acknowledges the many changes and challenges of the perioperative profession in the last few years. “We want safe care for patients. These are many changes to [our] practice. We need to help each other implement [them and] help each other figure things out. I love attending [the AORN] conference because you get all these nurses together. And we help each other figure things out….But we are better together, and we are going to come up with solutions. There are no limits to what we'll do. That's our theme this year—' No limits.’ That's what we want to take away. There are no limits to what we can do.”