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

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Medical Surgical Nursing Department, Benha University

2 General Surgery, Faculty of Medicine, Benha University

3 Medical Surgical Nursing, Faculty of Nursing, Cairo University

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

Keywords

Egyptian Journal of Health Care
Volume 8, Issue 3
September 2017
Pages 114-129

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