Editor's Note Education of surgical interns on postoperative analgesia was effective in preparing them for judicious opioid prescribing, this study finds. An education session on postoperative analgesia prescribing was presented to 31 incoming surgical interns by surgical residents. Before the education session was started, few interns felt comfortable prescribing opioids…

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The United States is amid a conversion to a value-based system of healthcare. Although this new delivery model has contributed to the closure of some hospitals and the realignment of others into larger health systems, the primacy of the OR as a source of revenue for hospitals has remained constant.…

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Flipping rooms, or running two ORs back to back, is common in many perioperative services departments. Certain rules of thumb can help ensure efficiency and good outcomes, but sometimes those rules either don’t exist or are unclear. Does your facility have guidelines for overlapping surgery, and do your surgical teams…

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Editor's Note The Joint Commission on December 5 announced a new, free educational tool that details wrong-site surgery safety strategies--identifying risk factors and possible ways to improve processes. The case study lays out a situation in which a patient is scheduled for transbronchial biopsies of the right upper lung but…

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Editor's Note Improvements in hospital work environments, nurse staffing, and educational levels of nurses coincided with improvements in patient safety and quality of care in this panel study from Linda Aiken, PhD, RN, and colleagues at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing, Philadelphia. Using data from a panel of…

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Editor's Note The first 360-degree virtual reality (VR) accredited continuing medical education course in gastro-intestinal (GI) surgery was filmed at Cedars-Sinai, Los Angeles, and is now available for streaming, Cedars-Sinai announced on December 3. The course is a collaboration between Cedars-Sinai and the streaming medical platform GIBLIB. The content closely…

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Editor's Note In this study, nurses with bachelor’s degrees were found to be significantly better prepared than nurses with associate degrees in 5 of 16 test topics between 2007 and 2008, and in 12 of 16 topics between 2014 and 2015. Researchers tested the quality and safety educational preparedness differences…

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Editor's Note The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on October 18 announced $293 million in awards to primary healthcare clinicians and students through the National Health Service Corps (NHSC) and Nurse Corps programs. These programs provide scholarships and loan repayment to healthcare providers in exchange for working in…

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Can experience in the OR improve patient care in the postsurgical inpatient setting? Beginning last year, the OR at Temple University Hospital, Philadelphia, started its first Periop 101 program and trained six nurses from postsurgical care units to be perioperative nurses. During the program, the former care unit nurses found…

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Attendees of the 2018 OR Manager Conference likely went home feeling inspired and recharged, but it can be hard to hold onto that enthusiasm over time. Our conference highlights article (cover) may jog their memories and, we hope, will reinvigorate their passion to excel as leaders. Every OR Manager Conference…

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