{"title":"Vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE) and the role of the healthcare worker.","authors":"Marilyn Ott, Heather Wirick","doi":"","DOIUrl":"","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Antibiotic resistance has increased dramatically within the last decade. The spread of antibiotic resistant strains of bacteria has become a threat within hospitals. Vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE) has emerged as one of these strains. VRE is a robust microorganism and can survive for long periods of time on environmental surfaces. VRE spreads quickly from patient to patient through contact with health care workers. This strain can increase the mortality rate in immuno-compromised patients. Hospital health care workers have an important role to play in the prevention and control of VRE. Proper, and frequent, hand-washing significantly contribute to preventing and controlling the spread of VRE. Providing health care workers with education and resources is also a key factor. The health belief model helps to explain how to approach and implement changes to practice.</p>","PeriodicalId":77061,"journal":{"name":"Canadian operating room nursing journal","volume":"26 1","pages":"21-4, 26-9, 32"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2008-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"27410265","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Pre-operative patient preparation in the prevention of surgical site infections.","authors":"Tara McBride, Jennifer Beamer","doi":"","DOIUrl":"","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Unlabelled: </strong>In 1999 the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care granted funding to St. Mary's General Hospital for a Regional Cardiac Care Center. In July 2003 the cardiac surgery program opened. During the program-planning phase, protocols and procedures related to patient preparation for cardiac surgery were developed.</p><p><strong>Objective: </strong>To share policies, protocols and patient teaching tools developed from research driven, evidenced based standards of practice. To complete a one-year review (January to December 2004) and assess the compliance rates with pre-operative patient preparation procedures on all Coronary Artery Bypass Graft (CABG) cardiac surgery patients.</p><p><strong>Design: </strong>Retrospective chart review.</p><p><strong>Setting: </strong>191 bed community-based Regional Cardiac Care Centre.</p><p><strong>Participants: </strong>All adult patients undergoing Coronary Artery Bypass Graft (CABG) surgery from January 1st 2004 to December 31st 2004.</p><p><strong>Analysis: </strong>Compliance rate following patient education related to pre-operative washes, assessing completion of pre-operative washes, and location of clipping relative to the Cardiovascular Operating Room (CVOR).</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>A team of Registered Nurses was able to effectively implement policies and protocols within a cardiac surgery program that meet the recommended standards of care of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Operating Room Nurses Association of Canada (ORNAC) and Safer Health Care Now! Initiative. A retrospective chart review has demonstrated that staff consistently apply and document care in accordance with the developed pre-operative wash and hair clipping protocols.</p>","PeriodicalId":77061,"journal":{"name":"Canadian operating room nursing journal","volume":"25 4","pages":"26-7, 29-32, 34"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2007-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41063017","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Why a registered nurse (RN) in the OR? The perioperative registered nurse role--a well kept secret.","authors":"Muriel Shewchuk","doi":"","DOIUrl":"","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The above description of the circulating Registered Nurse is only a brief over view of the detailed and complex world of perioperative nursing. Unveiling the vital, \"well kept secret\", of the need for a Registered Nurse, circulating at all times throughout the surgical procedure, is critical for safe patient care. The health care system is responsible, and accountable to the public, for the provision of a hospital environment that is safe for all patients and personnel. The operating theatre is the prime unit of care, in the OR, and must have the resources in the room to fully complete the intended surgery and to prepare for changes and complications that may arise. The critical thinking, clinical decision making, systems approach, and reflective high-level practice, creates a requirement that the circulating role must be filled by a Registered Nurse. A skilled perioperative Registered Nurse must be in charge of each theatre, any group of theatres, each OR shift and the OR Department. Every perioperative nurse needs to explain, be proud of, and to market the importance of the role outside the walls of the OR to the \"world\".</p>","PeriodicalId":77061,"journal":{"name":"Canadian operating room nursing journal","volume":"25 4","pages":"38-9, 41, 45-6"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2007-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41063018","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Could the death of a BC or nurse have been prevented by using the hands-free technique?","authors":"Ted Haines, Bernadette Stringer","doi":"","DOIUrl":"","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>In 1991, Bernadette Stringer, a long time BC Nurses' Union health and safety representative, learned about the death of a 48 year old Victoria, B.C., OR nurse who had sustained a hepatitis C contaminated needlestick. This incident led to a study evaluating the hands-free technique's ability to decrease the risk of percutaneous injury, glove tear and mucocutaneous contamination during surgery that Ms. Stringer carried out in partial fulfillment of her Ph.D. (granted in 1998, by McGill University's Joint Departments of Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Occupational Health, in the Faculty of Medicine). That study's main findings were published in 2002 in one of the British Medical Journal's publications, Occupational and Environmental Medicine. The following article will discuss aspects of Bev Holmwood's case, review the literature on the hands-free technique, and describe a new study that has again evaluated the hands-free technique's effectiveness.</p>","PeriodicalId":77061,"journal":{"name":"Canadian operating room nursing journal","volume":"25 4","pages":"8, 10-1, 19-20 passim"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2007-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41063016","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Counting as caring.","authors":"Chris Downey","doi":"","DOIUrl":"","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Perioperative nurses have developed specific expert nursing care practices. \"Counting as caring\" is certainly an approach in keeping with the perioperative nurse's guiding principle of beneficence (to do no harm). This article takes a retrospective look, from the first half of the last century through into the late 1960s, at the practice of counting and the influences that have changed it.</p>","PeriodicalId":77061,"journal":{"name":"Canadian operating room nursing journal","volume":"25 3","pages":"6-8, 10-1, 13"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2007-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"27066852","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Perioperative nursing management of the elderly patient.","authors":"Cameron Westhead","doi":"","DOIUrl":"","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>In order to provide optimum care and safety perioperative nurses must be aware of the unique characteristics of the populations encountered in the operating room. Older patients are more likely to experience comorbidities and age related health changes such as decreased cardiovascular reserves, social isolation, and sensory deficits. Specific knowledge of the elderly population is the focus of this paper.</p>","PeriodicalId":77061,"journal":{"name":"Canadian operating room nursing journal","volume":"25 3","pages":"34-5, 37-41"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2007-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"27066854","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Laparoscopic bowel surgery.","authors":"Carol Shack","doi":"","DOIUrl":"","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Bowel surgery is performed on a daily basis in many hospitals around the world. With the introduction of laparoscopic surgery in the 1990s, laparoscopic bowel surgery has become an option for patients to consider. This article will briefly review the anatomy of the large bowel and identify indications, contraindications, preoperative preparations, and intraoperative considerations for laparoscopic bowel surgery. A brief description of the various types of laparoscopic bowel resection procedures will be presented along with the advantages and complications. The future of laparoscopic bowel surgery will also be presented.</p>","PeriodicalId":77061,"journal":{"name":"Canadian operating room nursing journal","volume":"25 2","pages":"6-8, 10-1, 13-4"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2007-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"26884861","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Walk or be driven? A study on walking patients to the operating theatre.","authors":"Mary Keegan-Doody","doi":"","DOIUrl":"","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The objective of this study was to determine patients' perception on the possibility of changing a tradition-based practice to a more patient empowering service, thus demonstrating that nurses can make a difference in providing a more patient-centred environment. The study revealed that the patients themselves wanted to be included in the decision-making process and actively embrace change.</p>","PeriodicalId":77061,"journal":{"name":"Canadian operating room nursing journal","volume":"25 2","pages":"30-1, 33-5, 38"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2007-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"26884863","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The joys of perioperative nursing.","authors":"Coleen Ellen Mary Newland","doi":"","DOIUrl":"","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>When we join perioperative nursing we enter the swinging doors of the operating suite and never leave. Have we come home? Are we drawn by--Student experience? A job to go to by random assignment? A long desire to work in the OR? For a career change? Regardless of the reason for our arrival, many things keep us in the OR including the teamwork, friendships formed, the challenges, the camaraderie, and the constant learning of new skills. For some it is the adrenaline rushes with each crisis and trauma that comes through the door. Or maybe it's because we feel we truly are nursing and able to act for the patient. We realize that patients have placed their trust in our care during a very vulnerable time when they are unable to speak for themselves. What creates and keeps a perioperative nurse? Using a qualitative research questionnaire, given to nurses attending a national perioperative conference, the author obtained feedback from nurses on their feelings, attitudes and knowledge in an effort to determine what makes a perioperative nurse and what it is that keeps them there for so many years. The results, along with the author's personal observations, are outlined in this article.</p>","PeriodicalId":77061,"journal":{"name":"Canadian operating room nursing journal","volume":"25 2","pages":"20, 22-3, 25-8, passim"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2007-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"26884862","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}