Stephanie Jackson on Point-of-Use Shower Filtration on an Inpatient Transplant Unit
Point-of-use shower filtration may be an effective strategy in reducing waterborne pathogens and protecting patients who underwent stem cell transplant from infection.
Stephanie Jackson, DNP, RN, AOCNS, BMTCN, unit director for the hematology/stem cell transplantation unit at Ronald Reagan University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) Medical Center, and coeditor-in-chief of Oncology Nursing News®, sits down to discuss a point-of-use shower filtration system, which was implemented on an in-patient stem cell transplant unit at UCLA Health.
Patients undergoing procedures, such as stem cell transplant, are immunocompromised and are therefore vulnerable to the waterborne organisms, which can colonize in hospital water supplies, including Legionella pneumophila, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Mycobacterium avium. Because of this, many hospitals do not let these patients take showers while admitted to in-patient care.
Many patients expressed dissatisfaction with tub baths and cited a preference for showers, so investigators researched opportunities to allow shower-taking while also contributing to a zero-harm model. The point-of-use filtrations system will be changed every 60 days and will be tested once a quarter by an epidemiologist, Jackson explains.
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