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Purpose of the Program
Recent research regarding surgical operations indicates an increase in surgical site infections. Thus, there is a need to create awareness regarding the scourge in order to curb SSI rates. Therefore, this program is aimed at improving the effectiveness of the preoperative skin preparation protocol. This is anticipated to reduce SSI incidents to a minimum of 50 percent. Additionally, this will facilitate in measuring the economic savings related to the reduced SSI incidents. This program aims at promoting the utilization of prewarmed 2% no-rinse CHG clothes for preoperative skin antisepsis. Notably, the program is also charged with providing patients with the Sage 2% CHG cloths. In addition, the program aims at ensuring that nurses provide all patients with preoperative skin preparation/cleansing, instructions, appropriate techniques and the significance of effective antisepsis for preventing SSIs. Besides the aforementioned aims, the program is also focused on providing the background information regarding surgical site infections whereby, data reveal that postoperative SSIs contribute to 5% of SSIs in surgical patients (Livingston, 2011). Also, it is essential that the program ensures that there are minimum surgical complications.
Target Population
The target population comprises of nurses who are entitled to the duty of taking care of surgical patients before and after an operation. Notably, nurses form a significant target population because they are charged with the duty of providing information to patients regarding the prevention of SSIs. Besides, the nurses accomplish the duty of instructing patients on how to use the Sage 2% non-rinse clothes. The board of directors also forms a significant audience since they are the ones supposed to fund the program (O’Horo, Silva, Munoz-Price, & Safdar, 2012). The board of directors is particularly significant because they have to be convinced that the program is viable and will not lead to a waste of their funds. Surgical patients and the public also form a significant audience for the program because they are involved directly in one or more ways. This abounds from the fact that there is a need for public awareness because the public can also act as an evaluation tool on the program. Such a pilot program needs the public to avail there response regarding the success or failure of the program; thus, their inclusion is essential.
Benefits of the Program
According to O’Horo, Silva, Munoz-Price, & Safdar (2012), the program stands to benefit many people because the consistent utilization of 2% CHG cloths for preoperative skin antisepsis reduces the chances of SSIs infections. Furthermore, nurses stand to benefit from the program because they will receive knowledge regarding the use of 2% Sage clothes and other perioperative requirements, such as maintaining normothermia through prewarming of the 2% sage clothes, which has an effect on reducing the promotion of surgical wound infection that occurs because of mild perioperative hypothermia (Rhee & Harris, 2010). There will be substantial cost-savings. This abounds from the fact that SSIs are expensive to treat, and their prevention or a reduction in the SSIs cases will mean that healthcare organizations save a good sum of money that they could have utilized in the treatment of SSIs. The patients also stand to benefit from the program because they will be given comprehensive and concise information regarding the self-use of 2% Sage clothes and this will promote the observation of the preoperative protocol (Livingston, 2011).
Budget Justification
The program aims to run for a week, and this requires approximately 14 patients to undergo surgical operations. A minimum of 30 nurses will be utilized in the program. Thus, a seminar will be organized for nurses in order to provide them with background information regarding the use of the 2% Sage clothes so that they can pass the information to the surgical patients. This will require allowances for nurses and a minimum of 250,000 will be required to facilitate the program. Notably, it will be a one-day function. Two percent of Sage clothes will be required for practical teaching in the seminar and those to be given to surgical patients in the evening and morning before the operation is administered. Thus, an approximate of 200 kits will be required, which are estimated at $200,000. Further funding will be required to pay the nurses for the services delivered throughout the pilot program, and this is estimated at $500,000.
Additional funding is expected from organizations that promote good health practices and the reduction of SSIs.
The basis for Evaluating the Program
Evidence-Based Practice will be adopted whereby the program will commence by outlining its goals and objectives. This is an essential tool in the evaluation of the program because the stakeholders will compare the performance in relation to the specified goals and objectives. Secondly, the evidence-based practice will contain an implementation plan that will avail a schedule regarding how the program is to be implemented. An implementation plan plays a critical role in program evaluation as it indicates whether all the steps are on schedule or if a plan has been eliminated from the program. Additionally, the evidence-based practice will promote the assessing of the program’s effectiveness, and this will be done through measuring if the program has excelled in meeting its anticipated outcomes. Lastly, the outcomes of the program will also play a critical role in evaluating the program. If the intended results are achieved, that will be an indicator of success, but if the program does not meet its goals, then it will be a flaw.
