As hospitals and surgical services face an acute nursing shortage, the sustainability of the perioperative workforce continues to be a pressing concern. Several projections show the nursing workforce in the US—as well as globally—remains under strain while surgical demand shows no sign of slowing down. The American Association of Colleges…

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Perioperative leaders face a workforce transition unlike any in recent memory. By 2030, all baby boomers will have reached retirement age, and many veteran perioperative nurses are already exiting, taking with them decades of institutional knowledge. At the same time, the expectations of today’s workforce have shifted, placing greater value…

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Editor's Note The nursing shortage in California is deepening, with RN vacancies projected to grow from 3.7% in 2024 to 16.7% by 2033, HealthLeaders and KFF Health News October 8 report. The researchers cite inadequate training and retention pipelines, while nurses on the front lines say mismanagement, understaffing, and profit…

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Editor's Note This year, the OR Manager Conference promises playbooks attendees can put to work the day they return home. The event, being held in Anaheim on October 28–30, targets the system-level goals perioperative leaders are accountable for: capacity, cost, culture, and safety across multi-site enterprises. Attendees will get concrete…

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Editor's Note More than 31,000 Kaiser Permanente nurses and healthcare professionals are set to walk off the job on October 14 in what could be one of the largest healthcare strikes in recent history, Nurse.org October 7 reports. The 5-day strike, led by the United Nurses Associations of California/Union of…

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Editor's Note A new study shows that video-language models (VLMs) can reliably evaluate nursing procedures, detect errors, and provide feedback, paving the way for scalable AI-assisted training in nursing education, Cornell University September 20 reports. The paper, titled “Automated Procedural Analysis via Video-Language Models for AI-assisted Nursing Skills Assessment”, outlines…

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Editor's Note Training with surgical preference cards significantly lowers anxiety and strengthens clinical competence among OR nursing students, according to a randomized controlled trial published in BMC Medical Education on October 2. The study enrolled 60 OR nursing students in Iran between 2023 and 2024. Students were randomly assigned to…

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Editor's Note Following yesterday’s update on the impact of the federal government shutdown on telehealth and Affordable Care Act disruptions, the shutdown is also straining military health systems, biomedical research, and disease prevention programs, creating ripple effects for patient care and surgical innovation, Politico October 1 reports. While Medicare, Medicaid,…

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Editor's Note The American College of Surgeons (ACS) has launched a new online tool that helps patients and families locate hospitals recognized for delivering high-quality surgical care, according to an August 26 ACS announcement. The “Find a Hospital” tool highlights facilities that have earned ACS accreditation or verification through an…

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With the explosion of GLP-1–based therapies for type 2 diabetes and weight loss, perioperative nursing teams, especially in the preoperative and postanesthesia care areas, need to be fluent in recognizing these medications. Some patients may arrive on these agents—or even novel oral GLP-1s—and the physiologic effects, especially delayed gastric emptying,…

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