Editor's Note A new digital resource is helping hospital leaders strengthen infection prevention efforts by focusing not just on bedside protocols, but on management strategies proven to reduce healthcare-associated infections (HAIs). The “SMART Toolkit,” developed by researchers at The Ohio State University and launched in July 2022, offers a free,…

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Editor's Note Hospitals that embrace LGBTQ+ inclusive policies see better nurse retention, improved care quality, and stronger institutional endorsement, according to a large cross-sectional study published on March 25 in JAMA Network. The study examined data from 7,343 nurses across 111 hospitals in New York and Illinois, focusing on the…

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Editor's Note On this National Time Out Day, perioperative leaders are being called to reinvigorate the time-out process to combat complacency and reduce adverse events. Despite decades of safety initiatives, the adverse event rate in surgical care remains high—38% of perioperative cases, with nearly half tied directly to surgical procedures,…

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Editor's Note Wrong-site surgeries are on the rise, and insufficient surgical time outs are a key contributor, according to new data highlighted by AORN on June 10 in honor of this year’s National Time Out Day on June 11. Based on The Joint Commission’s Sentinel Event Data 2023 Annual Review,…

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Editor's Note A single training session on waste segregation significantly increased recycling rates among OR staff, but gains began to erode within two months, according to a study published May 26 in Nature: Scientific Reports. Conducted at Ankara University Cebeci Hospital, the quasi-experimental study assessed the impact of a single-session,…

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Editor's Note Greater familiarity between surgeons and anesthesiologists was associated with reduced major morbidity in certain high-risk procedures, according to a Canadian retrospective cohort study published in JAMA Surgery. As detailed in a May 28 report from MedPage Today, the population-based analysis included more than 711,000 index procedures, finding an…

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Editor's Note Research shows patients undergoing procedural sedation for endoscopic procedures experience significant and often undetected heat loss comparable to that seen during general anesthesia despite widespread assumptions that sedation preserves thermoregulation. Findings were published May 27 in The Journal of PeriAnesthesia Nursing.   Conducted at a tertiary hospital in…

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Editor's Note Researchers studying the exposure of sterile surgical slush to open air urge the adoption of closed-system technology to alleviate risks to sterility and surgical outcomes, according to a May 19 article in OR today. The article focuses on a time and motion study led by perioperative nursing leaders…

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Editor's Note An adult oncology specialty hospital has significantly improved staffing precision and fiscal accountability by replacing traditional 12-hour staffing assessments with a dynamic 4-hour model, according to a May 16 article in Oncology Nurse Advisor. The tool allows nurse leaders to match resources to fluctuating patient needs in near…

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Editor's Note Surgeons across top US health systems are swapping traditional monitors and even robotic systems for augmented reality (AR) headsets, which are streamlining procedures, enhancing precision, and slashing costs, Modern Healthcare May 27 reports. As detailed in the article, AR headsets are rapidly emerging as valuable surgical tools. From…

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