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Digital Issues

Vol. X, No. 4Archive > April, 2009

Safety

Surgery's Checks and Balances

Karen Anderson, RN, BSN, CNOR

Nowhere is clear communication more essential than in the operating room, where many individuals with various experiences and skill sets work together in a highly complex, high-stress environment. Our hospital launched a program to reduce surgical errors caused by lapses in communication. The program developed attitudes conducive to teamwork and minimized staffing hierarchies by encouraging input from every team member regarding "near-miss" or potential adverse events. It worked for us, and it can work for you if you follow these 5 simple tips.

 
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Lisa Waters-Davis, RN; Control; Debrief. Huddle; Department; Designate; Discuss; Dispense Pain Meds Our; Effective; Empower; Environmental Control; Heath; Innocuous; Meds Our; Meet; Nurse; ORs; PACU; Pain Meds Our; Present; Review; Scheduling; She'll; Staff; Watch; actions; add; address; adjoining; administer; administration; adverse; alert; anesthesia; anesthesiologist; approach; areas; assigned; assorted; attend; attention; attitudes; automated; back; barriers; basic; block; blood; box; breaches; care; case; cases; caused; circulating; clear; clinical; close; closures; communicate; communicating; communication; compliance; concepts; concerned; conclusion; conducive; confront; constructively; correspond; cracks; curtailed; cycle; day's; debriefings; deficiencies; departments; designate; determine; developed; developing; dime; discuss; diseases; dispenser; dispensing; diverse; document; documentation; documents; dosage; drug; educational; effective; elective; emotional; encouraging; ensure; ensuring; equal; equipment; errors; essential; events; examine; excellent; expected; experiences; eyes; facility; fact; familiarize; felt; field; find; finding; flags; focus; focusing; follow; forget; free; functioning; funds; gatherings; grab; hands; harshest; he'd; heart; helps; hierarchies; hierarchy; high-stress; highlighting; highly; history; homegrown; hope; hospital; hospitals; hours; huge; hunt; hunting; important; improve; inadvertently; inclined; including; individuals; informal; input; instituting; instrument; instrumentation; interact; interacting; intros; invest; issues; jeopardize; job; keeping; keys; knock; lapses; large; launched; learn; learning; lessons; letting; leveling; levels; lies; line; located; log; logbook; long; lung; maintained; major; management; manager; means; mediation; mediator; medication; meds; member; minimized; minor; minutes; mishaps; mix; morning; narcotics; newly; notices; number; numerous; nurse; nurses; obligation; obvious; occurred; operating; opposite; ordinary; other's; overly; oversights; pain; patient; patients; percent; period; person; pertinent; phrases; physiological; place; playing; policies; pose; post-op; potential; powerful; practice; preference; pressure; problem; procedures; program; promotes; providers; question; raise; rank; real; realize; red; reduce; regulations; remains; representation; required; responsible; retractor; retrieve; returns; reviews; roles; room; rooms; root; rotating; run; safety; schedule's; scheduled; scheduling; scrub; seats; senior; separate; serve; sessions; sets; shared; she's; shift; shifted; shyest; side; sign; simple; single; skill; slip; slots; small; solve; speak; specific; spending; staff; staffing; state; station; storage; stress; surgeon; surgeons; surgery; surgical; team; teamwork; tech; temporary; there'd; third-party; togetherness; tool; touched; trained; training; travel; uncomfortable; unexpected; unsterile; unused; vacant; vision; walking; wanted; witness; witnesses; work; worked; working; wrong
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