Is Your Facility Disability Friendly? Take steps to ensure disabled patients and staff have comfortable access to every room.

Next Steps; If you're committed to becoming more diverse and inclusive, here are a few places to get help.

The surgical nurse had a substance use disorder, went to rehab for treatment and was in long-term recovery. All seemed well, but she was surrounded by temptation...

Our surgery center doesn’t have a cafeteria, so family members who were waiting for their loved ones in surgery used to leave if they wanted a quick bite to eat. When surgeons...

How long has it been since you last heard about the importance of limiting the use of opioids to manage post-op pain. A few months since your last national...

The workplace environment at our surgery center is healthy and morale is high. We have regular pot luck dinners and wear T-shirts designed by the daughter of one of...

For Mandy Pate, RN, CBN, everything about the sleeve gastrectomy was familiar. She knew every square inch of the operating room at the University of Michigan...

Patient-centered care is one of surgery's hottest buzzwords for a reason. The patients who walk into your facility expect excellent surgical care. That much is a given....

The Joint Commission and the National Fire Protection Association guidelines say flammable preps must be allowed enough time to dry after application, pooled solution...

My recent study showed that music can be just as effective as midazolam in calming patients' nerves before they receive peripheral nerve blocks. Based on those...

The essential elements of proper endoscope care begin well before the notoriously difficult-to-clean devices are ready for high-level disinfection. The following protocols...

Let's face it, there are so many aspects of life in the OR that are downright frightening. From the spooky and shadowy to the gross and ghoulish, we nurses know all about...

The staff members who milled around the front desk of The Reading Hospital SurgiCenter at Spring Ridge were used to hearing one side of a familiar conversation....

Medication errors are all too frequent in the OR. A recent observational study identified an error in 5.3% of all anesthesia medication administrations — roughly 1 of every 20...

If you want your staff to relay safety concerns to you, you need to make it easy for them to report what they see. No one's going to fill out long, detailed forms....

When we experienced an uncharacteristic increase in SSIs starting in August 2018 — 9 infections over the next 6 months — we assumed the spike was related to opening...

Administering medications in the OR is wrought with challenges thanks to the patient's rapidly changing condition and constant distractions occurring in a fast-paced,...

Complex cataracts are becoming more common as increasing numbers of patients show up for surgery with risk factors for poor pupil dilation — uveitis, diabetes,...

Don't ignore the big-time importance of choosing the right small bone power tools for your upper and lower extremity surgeons. Here are some of the factors you need...

Mental health is often overlooked or not talked about because people are ashamed of sharing how they feel, or afraid of what others might think if they ask for help....