AB065. SOH25_AB_169. A survey of staff attitudes and opinions on the use of cloth scrub caps in the operating theatre at University Hospital Limerick

Background: The Health Service Executive has outlined a climate action strategy to achieve carbon neutral healthcare delivery by 2050. One potential step toward this is to decrease the use of single-use items. This survey aimed to identify the attitudes of operating theatre staff at University Hospital Limerick (UHL) toward using cloth scrub caps.

Methods: A total of 100 operating theatre staff at UHL were individually surveyed. Participants were asked questions relating to cap preference, perceived drawbacks of cloth caps and future willingness to use them.

Results: Participants included anesthesiology and surgical consultants, anaesthesiology and surgical non-consultant hospital doctors, nursing staff, radiographers, porters, and members of the hygiene team. Of the staff surveyed, 82% used only disposable caps; with 75% using at least four caps per week (21% used over seven caps each week). In total, 83% were willing to use cloth caps. The most commonly stated disadvantages of using cloth caps were, the perceived increased risk of infection (32%), the inconvenience of laundering caps at home (33%), possible infrequent laundering (15%), potentially contaminating family clothes (12%), forgetting cap at home (10%) and the need for additional cloth caps if contaminated (15%). Although 82% stated that using labelled caps could enhance communication in the theatre, only 66% would want their role and 61% want their name displayed on their cap.

Conclusions: This survey showed an initial enthusiasm for the use of cloth caps among the majority of theatre staff. However, this is provided that cloth caps can be reliably supplied and effectively and frequently laundered.

Keywords: Sustainable healthcare; cloth caps; disposable caps; staff survey; operating theatre