Editor's Note The Food & Drug Administration (FDA) on January 16 announced that Cardinal Health has alerted it customers to potential quality issues affecting some of its Level 3 surgical gowns and PreSource procedural packs that contain the gowns. Cardinal Health and the FDA recommend that customers immediately discontinue use…

Read More

Editor's Note A virtual system for in-home physical therapy (PT) provided similar patient outcomes after total knee arthroplasty (TKA), with lower costs than traditional in-person PT, finds this study. A total of 306 TKA patients were randomly assigned to have traditional PT, either at home or at clinic visits, or…

Read More

Editor's Note Reproductive hazards are present in the OR and may contribute to pregnancy complications and infertility in female surgeons, this review finds. Hazards include radiation, surgical smoke, working conditions, sharps injuries, anesthetic gases, and intraoperative use of toxic agents. Studies comparing female surgeons with the general population show increased…

Read More

Editor's Note Chicago’s Rush University College of Nursing is at the top of 183 online graduate nursing programs in the US News & World Report’s 2020 Best Online Programs, released January 14. The University of South Carolina in Columbia was second, and Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore was third. Ohio State…

Read More

Editor's Note The safety of bariatric surgery has improved since 1993, and there has been a growth in the number of bariatric procedures performed, this study finds. However, utilization has only marginally increased. Of an estimated 1,903,273 patients who had bariatric surgery between 1993 and 2016, the mean age was…

Read More

An effective handoff helps ensure care transitions are safe and efficient, but achieving the ideal handoff can be challenging. Part 1 of this two-part series provided an overview of the role of handoffs in the perioperative setting (OR Manager, January 2020, 22-23, 25). This article offers best practices for successful…

Read More

At Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) Health System in Richmond, implementation of Enhanced Recovery After Surgery (ERAS) incorporates principles of Lean thinking, a management methodology that emphasizes “…maximize[ing] customer value while minimizing waste. Simply, lean means creating more value for customers with fewer resources,” according to the Lean Enterprise Institute.1 Several…

Read More

Most hospital leaders are well aware of the coming wave of nurse retirements. However, few leaders understand that this wave will likely hit the OR even earlier than other departments. According to research from NSI Nursing Solutions, surgical services nurses are on average older than other nursing professionals. Because OR…

Read More

Editor's Note In this study, specialty certification was associated with greater professional identity in ICU nurses and higher perceptions of knowledge of and value in evidence-based practices, whereas education level was not. Of 268 respondents from six hospitals and 12 adult ICUs in an integrated health system, 71% had a…

Read More

Editor's Note The World Health Organization (WHO) has designated 2020 as the International Year of the Nurse and the Midwife, in honor of the 200th birth anniversary of Florence Nightingale. WHO and its partners are leading a year-long effort to celebrate the work of nurses and midwives, highlight the challenging…

Read More