When selecting a pre-operative skin prepping solution, keep in mind that one size does not fit all, regardless of what manufacturers may have you believe. Here are four tips for selecting the right agents for your facility.

Collaborate
Facilities too often stick with the familiar (traditional scrub-and-paint iodophor prepping) when there may be better options. Or they'll switch because a physician or infection control officer recommends it, without evaluating all the pros and cons, causing less-than-enthusiastic buy-in from nurses.

Physicians and nurses need to express their preferences. The infection control manager needs to look at your facility's infection rates and help interpret the meaning of the products' efficacy data. Finally, the administrator needs to evaluate cost-benefit data.

Ms. Conner ('rconner@aorn.org')) is a perioperative nursing specialist in AORN's Center for Nursing Practice.