Perceptions and Experiences of Surgical Nurses in Using the WHO Checklist in a Perioperative Setting: a Mixed-method Study.

Background: As a surgical nurse in a healthcare team, it is helpful to position the patient, depending on the nature of the procedure, and to prepare independently both the instrumentation and the site of surgery with drapes prior to the surgical procedure.

Objective: To examine the experience of surgical nurses in their work with the WHO surgical checklist in Sweden.

Methods: Data were collected from one hundred and ninety-six healthcare professionals, including thirty-nine surgical nurses, using a self-administered questionnaire. The Mantel-Haenszel and Pearson χ ² tests were used for ordered and unordered categorical variables. The qualitative data was presented in the form of the positive and negative contribution of the checklist and the text was analyzed according to Graneheim and Lundman.

Results: Surgical nurses (61.6%) answered "no" to the question about being educated and trained in using checklists. Almost the same answer was given when it came to adapting the checklist to the department and the fact that the assistant nurse was responsible for ensuring the checklist was used (61.5%). 89.9% of them did not know who was responsible for implementing the checklist before surgery. According to (56.4%), the checklist was used all the time in emergencies, while (12.8%) of them stated that they did not believe that the checklist improved patient safety.

Conclusions: Compliance with the WHO's checklist varies, and the observed compliance is lower than that documented. The surgical nurses gave the same responses as others in the team. Clearer procedures are needed during surgery, specifying how the checklist should be used in practice, and there should be a designated person who is responsible for implementing the checklist.