Structured OR educational programs shorten orientation period
Successful hiring for the OR depends on ensuring nurses have the right education and clinical skills as well as the right attitude: Are they are willing and able to be team players? OR nurse leaders at Saint Luke’s Health System (SLHS), Kansas City, Missouri, have been revamping their intern and…
SCOREing patient safety with a proactive approach
Avoiding preventable harm in the OR is the goal of any surgical services department, and meeting that goal requires excellent communication and collaboration among staff members. At Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, the Safe Care in the OR Everytime (SCORE) project has raised awareness about safety and engaged front-line…
Checklists help staff keep cool in the heat of an OR crisis
An emergency situation in the OR can rattle even the most experienced surgeons, anesthesiologists, and staff. To help reduce anxiety and prompt a more effective response to emergencies, clinicians increasingly are turning to cognitive aids. These cognitive aids, routinely used for years in aviation and other high-hazard industries, are an…
AAAHC issues guidelines for obese patients
Screening heavier patients for ambulatory surgery just became a little easier, thanks to a new brochure from the Accreditation Association for Ambulatory Health Care (AAAHC) Institute for Quality Improvement, Skokie, Illinois. Titled “Ambulatory surgery and obesity in adults: Preventing complications,” the two-page toolkit draws on some 40 research articles outlining…
Forging a path toward OR nursing education
There is no OR nurse university. Nurses can’t go away to college, pay tuition, and learn to be a perioperative nurse. “Faced with a staffing shortfall, how are we going to deal with this? How are they going to learn and acquire skills needed to work in the OR?” These…
Analytics: A powerful tool for OR process improvements
Analytics is a buzzword in today’s healthcare world, but behind the buzz is a very real tool. If used appropriately, analytics can help OR managers achieve improvements in stubborn problems such as turnover time. But OR leaders must first understand analytics principles before applying them in their management practice. Analytics…
Editorial
Perioperative nursing needs a standardized educational path for entry into the profession, according to James X. Stobinski, PhD, RN, CNOR (cover story), yet there’s no single entity for taking charge and making that happen. Stobinski lays out some options for how to achieve the education and competency needed for the…
Fine-tuning the Munro Scale for pressure ulcers
Pressure ulcers affect up to 3 million adults in the US each year, according to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. Surgical patients are at high risk to develop pressure ulcers because of immobility during long procedures and anesthesia that blocks sensitivity to pain and pressure. Estimates of treatment…
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