Editor's Note A study led by researchers at Yeshiva University showed an educational intervention program significantly improved perioperative nurses’ understanding of pressure-injury prevention, with the benefits lasting for at least six months following the training. Results were published August 23 in Applied Nursing Research. Conducted among 354 nurses from 11…

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Editor's Note A joint communication from AORN and the Association of Healthcare Value Analysis Professionals (AHVAP, a strategic partner of AORN) provides advice and resources for affiliated healthcare professionals who could be impacted by the recent strike by port workers across major US shipping ports. Issued September 30, the statement…

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Editor’s Note The Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC) is advocating for clearer reprocessing instructions for medical devices to improve patient safety and efficiency, Outpatient Surgery Magazine August 19 reports. Many current instructions for use (IFUs) are considered overly complex, outdated, and difficult to interpret, especially for…

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Editor's Note At last year’s OR Manager Conference, Kelly Kapp, RN, CNOR, CNAMB, clinical education director at SCA Health, discussed the successful development and implementation of the Perioperative 101 (Periop 101) training program for nurses at SCA facilities. The initiative had the goal of mitigating the nursing shortage while improving…

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For me, the answer is easy. For 25 years I have consistently said, “I’ve never nursed an OR a day in my life; it’s always been the patients.” As perioperative nurses, what we do is about more than where we work. Why is it that 25 years after the Association…

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Complex problems do not always require complex solutions. Consider the surgical safety checklist. In 2020, more than a decade after the World Health Organization (WHO) started advocating that every hospital use the checklist, research from PSNET found that more than 90% of ORs in countries with a high human development…

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Editor's Note AORN encourages perioperative leaders to speak up and reach out in honor of National Time Out Day, an annual recognition of the critical safety practice scheduled for June 12. The annual day of recognition draws attention to the need for everyone on the surgical team to pause before…

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Left sniffling and sneezing after a whirlwind 4 days at my first AORN Global Surgical Conference and Expo in Nashville, Tennessee, I had more on my mind than whether the term “conference-acquired infection (CAI)” was officially part of the medical nomenclature, much less whether any studies had been done. I…

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The US Food and Drug Administration receives more than 100,000 medication-related reports, and some of them, according to the AORN Journal, “involve patient death.” AORN’s 2024 updated guidelines include safety updates for perioperative staff when handling, transporting, and administering medication, which can be a complex process prone to errors. In…

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Editor's Note National Time Out Day on June 14 renews attention on the surgical team to prevent wrong-site surgery by pausing before a surgical procedure begins to make sure it is the right site, right procedure, and right person, a June 7 joint statement by The Joint Commission and AORN…

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