Sustainability interventions in nursing wards
Monitoring parameters
Reusable oxygen saturation sensor
Measuring a patient’s oxygen saturation is an essential part of patient care. Due to their high consumption in hospitals, disposable oxygen saturation sensors have a considerable environmental impact.
Intervention
Replace disposable saturation sensors with reusable saturation sensors.
Exclusion: Neonatal departments due to the different sizes of saturation sensors used for neonates.
Exclusion: Pediatric departments due to the different sizes of saturation sensors used for small children and neonates.
Environmental impact
Measured in CO₂ emissions, based on the reduction in the number of disposable saturation sensors and the reuse of saturation sensors.
Implementation approach
Refer to the approach for implementing a (reusable) product and consult the step-by-step guide for more information on setting goals, implementation, and evaluation.
When is it implemented?
This intervention was implemented when nursing wards in the hospital switched to reusable saturation sensors and the difference in kg of CO2 equivalent has been calculated.
How is this measured?
The environmental impact of this intervention can be determined using the purchase data for the number of disposable saturation sensors, see method of measuring intervention with purchasing data.
Resources
click here for a fact sheet about the savings that can be achieved when switching to reusable saturation sensors.
Footnotes
- Dutch Federation of University Medical Centers. (June 2024). National inventory of UMCs medical disposables.
Resultaten
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View our other interventions
General resources
Reducing glove use
Nurses use large quantities of non-sterile gloves during patient care. There are three situations where gloves are required: 1) when caring for patients in isolation 2) when there is a risk of contact with mucous membranes or bodily fluids 3) when preparing certain medications. Wearing gloves as a standard practice is not recommended1. Due to the high consumption rates in hospitals, gloves have a considerable environmental impact2.
Nursing interventions
Reusable non-sterile suture removal set
A suture removal set contains sterile disposable materials such as gauze, cotton swabs, tweezers, and scissors or a stitch cutter. The tweezers and scissors do not need to be sterile and can be replaced by clean, reusable ones that are cleaned and disinfected. This means the final sterilisation step is omitted after cleaning and disinfection. Mechanical cleaning (thermal disinfection) is preferred over manual cleaning.
