A nurse-driven urinary catheter-removal protocol helped reduce catheter use by 32% and catheter-associated urinary tract infections (CAUTIs) by 45% per 1,000 patient days over 18 months at one hospital. The finding was different in the hospital's ICUs, however, which report data to the National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN). In the…

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Evidence indicates extended work hours are a hazard to patients as well as to nurses. Now two nursing professors who have studied nurses' working conditions call for alternatives to 12-hour shifts and urge the profession to rethink their extensive use. "Nurses often prefer working a bunch of 12-hour shifts and…

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OR leaders spend a great deal of time and effort on improving on-time starts for first cases of the day. Is that time well spent? How can you determine whether reducing late starts would help save substantive costs before you embark on the effort? Two articles in Anesthesia & Analgesia…

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Is too much preoperative testing being done for ambulatory surgery patients? New research suggests testing practices may need a close look. "If anesthesiologists are just ordering tests as a routine, they need to look at our study and re-examine what they're doing," advises Frances Chung, FRCPC, a well-known researcher in…

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Scott S. Reuben, MD, a well-known anesthesiologist and researcher on postoperative pain, has been accused of fabricating study results. Based on its investigation, Baystate Medical Center, Springfield, Massachusetts, where Dr Reuben was a researcher, has asked medical journals to retract his articles, according to the March Anesthesiology News. Dr Reuben…

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Arecount of surgical sponges may prolong a case, but does it affect the patient's outcome? Do patients fare better if an OR uses a certain staffing pattern? How does OR staff experience relate to outcomes? AkkeNeel Talsma, RN, PhD These are examples of questions a nurse researcher at the University…

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