Intraoperative Nurses' Safety Practices: Its Effect on Postoperative Adverse Events among Surgical Patients undergoing General Anesthesia

Abstract

Improving intra operative nurses' safety practices regarding surgical patients can be achieved through assessing how patients can be harmed or experienced further adverse events as result of improper practices and errors. Therefore, the study aimed to assess the effect of intraoperative nurses' safety practices on postoperative adverse events among surgical patients undergoing general anesthesia. Convenient Sample of two different groups (19 operating room nurses who assigned for caring of intraoperative general surgical patients &78 surgical patients who had major general surgery undergoing general anesthesia and experienced adverse events in postoperative care departments) had been recruited in the study. Two tools were used to collect data (1) observational checklist (adapted by investigator), (2) global trigger tool (developed by investigator).The Results revealed that total practice score of studied nurses was unsatisfactory (78.9%) along three phases of surgery so one half of studied patients (50%) experienced surgical wound infection or sepsis as adverse event in post-operative departments. In addition, more than two thirds of studied patients (70.5%) had experienced prolonged hospitalization as result of occurrence of adverse events '' moderate level of harm'' (category F).Conclusion. When intraoperative nurses' safety practices regarding surgical patients was unsatisfactory along three phases of surgery (sign in, time out, sign out), those patients had experienced adverse events and harm in post-operative departments regardless their age, gender, type of operation, and pervious surgical and general anesthesia history. the study recommended that strict observation and evaluation of nurses` performance during their work as well as correction of poor practices is essential, the need for continuous educational programs for operating room nurses to improve their practices regarding patient safety, and establishing a data base for patients who experienced adverse events in postoperative departments is necessary.

Effect of Nurses’ Implementation of Surgical Safety Guidelines on Their Performance and Post-Operative Complications

“…This includes being accountable for maintaining the sterility of the instruments and taking precautions to reduce the risk of surgical site infection and post-operative complications. It also requires the ability to handle biological specimens, recognize the needs of surgical team and develop care plans Additional critical challenges include identifying patients' safety threats including blood loss and airway trouble or aspiration; correct counting of surgical supplies, control of environmental hazards and enhancing interpersonal communication (Mohamed et al, 2020;Von Vogelsang et al, 2020).…”

“…World Health Organization (WHO) defines patient's safety as the absence of preventable harm to a patient during the process of health care. Patients' safety covers both absence of harm to patient and actions taken for harm prevention and also includes implementation of health care practices that eliminate recognized causes of common errors It's considered the foundation of high quality patient's care and it's a foremost issue to provide safe patient care at the operating theatre because it's possible to prevent half of surgery related errors and complications (Alhabahbeh et al, 2018; Mohamed et al, 2020). Surgical patient safety has been a major challenge of the nursing profession for the past two decades.…”