A patient’s condition can change in the blink of an eye. Are you prepared to respond? And what happens if the patient dies? This is the focus of an annual seminar at Houston Methodist Hospital that was developed to increase the comfort level of perioperative nurses caring for a patient…

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Hospital-acquired pressure injuries (HAPIs) fall under the care management serious event category, and the literature suggests the incidence of a pressure injury following surgery or a procedure may contribute to more than half of all hospital-related skin injuries. Furthermore, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has defined numerous…

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Editor's Note Though recent guidelines mandating additional barrier attire for all scrubbed and unscrubbed OR personnel from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) and Joint Commission, which include bouffant caps covering all hair and long-sleeved surgical attire covering all exposed skin, this study finds that this mandate does…

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Salaries for ambulatory surgery center (ASC) leaders are down slightly, according to the OR Manager 2019 Salary/Career Survey, with slightly more than half of respondents (52%) earning $100,000 or more—a decline from 60% in 2018, 54% in 2017, and 53% in 2016. That dip may be contributing to corresponding lower…

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About 2 years ago I was diagnosed with prostate cancer. As I researched the treatment alternatives, I became very concerned about the complications associated with traditional surgical prostatectomy or radiation. Then I learned that I might be eligible for an outpatient procedure: high-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU). Although HIFU is relatively…

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Editor's Note This study found a very large variability in the use of postoperative opioids in different countries. The study sample included 129,379 opioid-naïve patients in the US, 84,653 in Canada, and 9,802 in Sweden. More than 70% of surgical patients in the US (76.2%) and Canada (78.6%) filled opioid prescriptions…

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Editor's Note The Food & Drug Administration (FDA) announced September 4 that it will hold a Medical Devices Advisory Committee Meeting in November to discuss ethylene oxide (EO) sterilization of medical devices, including methods to reduce EO emissions. The committee also will provide recommendations on reducing infection risks from reprocessed…

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Editor's Note This study finds that supportive leadership is the primary factor contributing to millennial nurses’ job satisfaction. Using data from 1,006 nurses in the Professional Practice Work Environment Inventory survey, researchers found that demographic factors (ie, age, gender, race, ethnicity, work status, and experience) accounted for just 2.6% of…

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Editor's Note The debate over surgical cap attire has grown from a patient-safety issue to a platform for emotionally driven arguments, unflattering logic, and failed leadership by all parties involved, according to this Viewpoint article in JAMA Surgery. The 2014 guidelines from AORN never explicitly endorsed the bouffant hair cover,…

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Editor's Note All levels of nurse leaders are at risk of burnout and must garner compassion satisfaction from different sources, including peer and staff interactions, this study finds. The Professional Quality of Life scale was given to 672 nurse leaders at 29 hospitals in one health system, and 16 leaders…

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