Nursing Interventions for the Prevention of Surgical Wound Infections – A Descriptive Literature Review

Abstract

Surgical wound infection is common but avoidable complication after surgical operation. Surgical wound infection impacts negatively on patient’s health and increases financial costs. Therefore, nurses have an essential responsibility in quarantining patient safety by prevention of surgical wound infections.

The purpose of this bachelor’s thesis was to describe nursing interventions that prevent surgical wound infections. The aim of this bachelor’s thesis was to collect evidence based information on how nurses can correctly prevent surgical wound infections. The research questions of this bachelor’s thesis were: 1) Which nursing interventions prevent surgical wound infections? 2) What are the challenges of nurses when practicing nursing interventions whilst preventing surgical wound infections?

The bachelor’s thesis is a descriptive literature review. Eight research articles were analysed, which were selected as a result of a systematic search from PubMed and CINAHL databases. An inductive content analysis was performed on the studies to answer the research questions of the bachelor’s thesis.

Based on the analysis, six nursing interventions were results to prevent surgical wound infections. These nursing interventions are preparation of a surgical site, an aseptic technique, maintaining patient’s vital signs, wound care, communication, and pharmaceutical interventions. However, nurses face challenges in clinical practice, due to which nursing interventions are not always implemented or are implemented to a limited extend. These challenges are often caused by nurse’s lack of competence or issues with workplace practice.

Nursing interventions which prevent surgical wound infections have been widely researched and there is clear evidence of their benefits. The challenges of nurses when practicing nursing interventions resulted in this bachelor’s thesis are crucial from the point of view of patient safety. Therefore, further research on how these challenges experienced by nurses could be reduced is necessary.