The nursing profession, while deeply rewarding, is fraught with unique stressors that can significantly impact mental health and well-being. This article aims to provide an overview of the problem, highlight key risk factors, and outline actionable prevention steps.
Test your general perioperative knowledge with this crossword puzzle.
Periop nurses carry a weight of responsibility that extends far beyond the sterile environment. Periop nursing demands expertise, focus, and critical thinking under pressure within a high-stress environment. Daily encounters with trauma, patient suffering, and life-or-death situations make perioperative nurses susceptible to vicarious trauma (VT). This article provides perspective on VT, examines its relevance to perioperative nursing, and offers strategies to mitigate its effects.
Becoming a nurse in the OR is a big step! It's exciting, but it's also normal to feel stressed or anxious as you get used to this new environment.
In this special edition, we have provided tools and resources to help you and your team members talk about mental health.
Test your general perioperative knowledge with this crossword puzzle.
Since the inception of the nursing profession, nurses have been innovative in innumerable ways to ensure that patients receive the best care possible. As nursing practice and the field of medicine continue to evolve, so does the demand for continued innovative practices.
National ophthalmic organizations, however, recommend avoiding routinely using enzymatic products on instruments that are used in the eye, and many nurses often wonder why these instruments are an exception.
Nursing professional organizations are arranged at the state and national level to facilitate professional development, advocate for nursing practice, support evidence-based patient care, and provide networking opportunities.
This article discusses the importance of teamwork in the operating room, acknowledging that no procedure can succeed without collaboration among surgical staff.
A new nurse asks for advice about the patient pickup process.
A new nurse asks for advice about how to manage the constant change in workflow.
Learn four steps that you can take to effectively develop an assertive attitude that will allow you to be the advocate that you need to be in the OR—both for your patients and for your team members.
My career in perioperative nursing spans over 30 years, during which I have experienced many significant milestones that have shaped my professional journey and gained many insights that I believe are worth sharing.
As you gaze around the OR and acknowledge the surgeon removing the tumor from the patient's abdomen and hand it to the scrub person as you prepare to collect the specimen, you cannot help but think, “Imagine if I had to handle some of these tasks without gloves?” You can silently thank Caroline Hampton and Joseph Bloodgood for avoiding that scenario as you place the tumor into a specimen cup.
Both lead and lead-free garments are designed to shield the body from x-rays, particularly the vital organs and reproductive areas, which are more sensitive to radiation.
Maintaining normothermia during the perioperative period is an essential part of patient care and is a quality objective per the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) merit-based incentive payment system, yet, hypothermia remains a common occurrence, occurring in 50-70% of patients undergoing general anesthesia.
Test your general perioperative knowledge with this crossword puzzle.
One of the best perks of working in the OR is the team. Everyone knows their job and does it well. But what do you do when someone refuses to be a team player? Here are three tips (and one absolutely essential skill) to deal with inhibitory attitudes in the OR.
Entering unfamiliar surgical procedures as an orientee or recently trained nurse can be daunting. Utilize the preference card as a resource to alleviate fears and position yourself to anticipate the needs of the surgical team.
