I have been a surgical nurse for more than 30 years and a patient numerous times. I’m fully aware, from both sides of the table, of the importance of safe surgical care. There are numerous factors that go into protecting...

If you asked your colleagues to define postoperative delirium and the symptoms to look out for, do you think they could answer you with confidence? Believe it or not, the condition is widely misdiagnosed because its symptoms...

The Gold Standard of Smoke-Free Surgery; When a nurse had an asthma attack following a plume-generating surgery, our perioperative team sprang into action.

When Robert Bray, MD, learned that DISC Sports and Spine Center in Newport Beach, Calif., achieved accreditation for the fifth consecutive year, he was already looking forward to the next one. The neurosurgeon...

With the danger of criminal prosecution hanging over their heads, how many frontline nurses — many of whom are already burnt out from the harrowing experiences...

No sterile processing department (SPD) manager wants to add another step to the complex and strategically redundant process of sterilizing surgical instruments....

Warming patients before, during and after surgeries delivers two primary benefits. The most obvious is the comfort. Warmth can do wonders to soothe a shivering, nervous...

Most surgical professionals are relatively knowledgeable about the best surface cleaning practices, and tried-and-true manual methods remain the best way to...

Studies have shown that up to 30% of the population may be colonized with Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) in their nares and up to 5% of U.S. hospitalized patients...

Zero is always the goal. Our surgery center works tirelessly on multiple fronts to ensure no patient walks away from an elective procedure with a surgical site infection (SSI). Of course, hitting that elusive benchmark is always...

Five or 10 years ago, a basic anesthesia machine was perfectly suitable in many outpatient ORs. Times have changed, however, as the differences between hospitals...

Staff at Eye 35 ASC in Schertz, Texas, make sure a team member in each department is always available on a walkie-talkie. The devices — used by pre-op and PACU nurses, surgical team members and runners who turn over...

When you place patients head down with their stirrup-supported legs reaching skyward at a 30- to 45-degree angle, there is a laundry list of things that could go wrong,...

Performing immediate sequential bilateral cataract surgery (ISBCS) offers plenty of potential benefits. Surgeons appreciate being able to halve post-op visits...

RaDonda Vaught stood in silence next to her attorney, seemingly resigned to her fate as the jury rendered its verdict. Guilty of gross neglect of an impaired adult. ...

Wrong-site, wrong-side and wrong-patient surgeries are never acceptable, even on an OR's busiest day. Follow these five basic steps to avoid these devastating surgical errors....

The Association of periOperative Registered Nurses (AORN) has updated its guideline for preventing unintentionally retained surgical items (RSIs) with a recommendation...

Wrong-site surgery is devastating for the patient, the staff who worked the case and the surgeon who made the incorrect cut. Still, the avoidable error remains the third most...

Surgical sponges and other items used during surgery should never be left in the patient, and yet retained foreign object (RFO) events continue to occur. Why?...

Two years ago last month, the coronavirus began to spread across the country. The virulent strain, which most of us had never heard of before it quickly became part of...