The AORN Global Surgical Conference & Expo will be held April 6-10, 2019 in Nashville, TN. This year's focus is Harmonized Care: the Key to Safety. It is the largest Gathering of Perioperative Professionals in the World with over 5,600 executives, directors,...
One of the biggest responsibilities of the operating room (OR) team is to ensure patient safety. There are many facets to patient safety in the OR. Safe patient positioning is a critical facet since the patient is unable to tell you if they are in pain or...
Amos Schonrock, MAN, RN, ST, PHN, CSSM, CNAMB, CNOR, NE-BCPerioperative Practice and Safety SpecialistOne of the highly common surgical positions is supine. This approach involves the surgical team’s watchful eyes to oversee a patient that will lie on their back with...
Some surgical procedures require extreme positioning to ensure that the targeted surgical area is accessible to the surgeon and the surgical team. Extreme positioning requires extreme positioning devices, manufactured to meet the need for surgical access....
The pediatric surgical patient, like any other surgical patient can be vulnerable to pressure ulcers (PU). Reducing pressure injury development in the pediatric surgical patient can be challenging especially when there is an admitting diagnosis of congenital heart...
Pressure Ulcer Risk Assessment “Little is known about pressure ulcer prevention practice among pediatric patients,” Razmus and Bergquist-Beriger lamented just two years ago in Wound Management & Prevention. For one thing, the authors explained, risk factors for...
The supine position is the most common surgical position with the patient lying on their back with the head, neck and spine in a neutral position. This position is not without pressure injury risk as there is increased pressure and shear forces to the scapula,...
Hospital Acquired Pressure Injury Hospital Acquired Pressure Injuries (HAPI, formally pressure ulcers) can result in a lifetime of pain, suffering and even possibly death for the patient. HAPI rates are reported to the National Database of Nursing Quality Indicators...
Decrease Patient Injury and Improve Teamwork The “time out” is one part of the Universal Protocol developed by the Joint Commission to prevent wrong-site, wrong-procedure, and wrong-person surgery. Each are considered never events by the National Quality Forum and...
Surgical nurses play a critical role in protecting patients from positioning-related pressure injuries during surgical procedures. One of the most effective tools to support this mission is the viscoelastic gel overlay, a material designed to reduce pressure, enhance...
