The effect of using nail polish by operating room nurses on bacterial colonization after surgical hand washing

Surgical site infections are very important and serious problem on morbidity, mortality, increasing the length of stay hospital and hospital costs.It is known to be very important handwashing practices of health care workers of operating room in the prevention of surgical site infections. In the literature there is no definitive judgement about the effect of using nail polish by operating room nurses on surgical hand washing. This study was carried out as experimental research with 33 nurses working at Zonguldak Atatürk Devlet Hastanesi Operating Unit and that over 18 years between 09.01.2015 - 15.07.2016. Nurses were excluded if they had skin irritation, latex allergy or eczema, if they had taken antibiotics during the previous 2 weeks or had performed surgical hand disinfection during the preceeding 24 hours. Glove juice method were used to measure the bacterial colonization on the flora of the participants.The data obtained analyzed in SPSS 16.0 with descriptive statical methods, Man Whitney U test and Kruskal Wallis test. Findings have been evaluated 0.05 meaning level. As a result, surgical nurses were no statistically significant difference between the number of bacteria in samples taken when after hand-washing natural nails and applying nail polish.The demographic characteristics of the nurses were no evident significant difference between the number of bacteria but in the youngest age group, license degree, 1-10 years in the profession and 1-10 years working in the operating room, smaller than 2 mm nail length, the use of regular moisturizer was found to be higher than the average bacteria count in their hands. Findings have been evaluated 0.05 meaning level