Vivian J Zagarese, Ivan Hernandez, Neil M A Hauenstein, Roseanne J Foti, Sarah H Parker
{"title":"The surgical time-out: the relationship between perceptions of a safety-task anchor and surgical team workflow.","authors":"Vivian J Zagarese, Ivan Hernandez, Neil M A Hauenstein, Roseanne J Foti, Sarah H Parker","doi":"10.1186/s12893-025-02789-w","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>The surgical time-out is a critical safety measure used in the operating room (OR). We examined the mediating relationship of the length of the time-out between team perceived usefulness of the time-out, and the rate at which the circulating nurse left the OR to retrieve instruments.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>60 cardiac surgical teams were observed performing their work. The length of the time-out and the rate at which the circulating nurse left the OR was obtained by observation of the surgical team. We administered a survey with a 7-point Likert scale to assess the surgical staff's perceived usefulness of the time-out at the end of the surgery. An analysis was conducted to test if length of the time-out mediated the relationship between perceived usefulness of the time-out and rate at which the nurse leaves the OR to retrieve an instrument useful for the surgery.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>The relationship of the length of the time-out with the rate at which the nurse leaves the OR was non-significant (β = 0.089, p = .496). However, the relationship between perceived usefulness of the time-out with the length of the time-out was significant (β = 0.346, p < .05) and the effect between perceived usefulness of the time-out and the rate at which the nurse left the OR was statistically significant (β= - 0.424, p = < 0.001).</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>In this study we explore how surgical teams' attitudes towards the usefulness of the time-out affect its utilization, and how attitudes about time-outs are related to the important process measure of rate at which the circulating nurse leaves the OR. The full mediation model was not supported by the data; however, there appears to be a relationship between the perceived usefulness of the time-out and the rate at which the circulating nurse leaves the OR.</p>","PeriodicalId":49229,"journal":{"name":"BMC Surgery","volume":"25 1","pages":"55"},"PeriodicalIF":1.6000,"publicationDate":"2025-02-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11796080/pdf/","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"BMC Surgery","FirstCategoryId":"3","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1186/s12893-025-02789-w","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"SURGERY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Background: The surgical time-out is a critical safety measure used in the operating room (OR). We examined the mediating relationship of the length of the time-out between team perceived usefulness of the time-out, and the rate at which the circulating nurse left the OR to retrieve instruments.
Methods: 60 cardiac surgical teams were observed performing their work. The length of the time-out and the rate at which the circulating nurse left the OR was obtained by observation of the surgical team. We administered a survey with a 7-point Likert scale to assess the surgical staff's perceived usefulness of the time-out at the end of the surgery. An analysis was conducted to test if length of the time-out mediated the relationship between perceived usefulness of the time-out and rate at which the nurse leaves the OR to retrieve an instrument useful for the surgery.
Results: The relationship of the length of the time-out with the rate at which the nurse leaves the OR was non-significant (β = 0.089, p = .496). However, the relationship between perceived usefulness of the time-out with the length of the time-out was significant (β = 0.346, p < .05) and the effect between perceived usefulness of the time-out and the rate at which the nurse left the OR was statistically significant (β= - 0.424, p = < 0.001).
Conclusion: In this study we explore how surgical teams' attitudes towards the usefulness of the time-out affect its utilization, and how attitudes about time-outs are related to the important process measure of rate at which the circulating nurse leaves the OR. The full mediation model was not supported by the data; however, there appears to be a relationship between the perceived usefulness of the time-out and the rate at which the circulating nurse leaves the OR.