On the opportunity to promote safety
and educate staff on National Time Out Day
On the opportunity to promote safety and educate staff on National Time Out Day
 |
With Linda Groah, RN,
MSN, CNOR, CNAA, FAAN Chief Executive Officer AORN Press play to listen to the complete interview |
AORN Management Connections: How can a day like
National Time Out Day serve to raise awareness of the "Time Out"
and surgical safety checklists?
Linda Groah: I think the most important thing about National Time Out Day is it has a focus. And with all the organizations we have supporting it, it really shows that everyone understands this is important. So the focus on National Time Out Day is exactly that - it raises that awareness. I really think this year's theme, "Every Day is Time Out Day," is a great way to focus the changes that need to occur.
Wrong side and site surgery continues to be a problem in this country, and it's really perplexing to try and understand why that continues to be an issue. One of the things that we think may be a dilemma for people in the clinical areas is that we do have the World Health Organization (WHO) surgical checklist and we have the Universal Protocol from Joint Commission. AORN encourages the Time Out through the Correct Site Surgery Tool Kit and National Time Out Day. But we basically have a process that is not standardized, and secondly confusing people as to which one is which. One of the things that I think National Time Out Day will do is help people refocus and say, 'This is what's important: The Time Out." And the Time Out is exactly that--time to say what side and what site we are we doing on this patient and everyone in the operating room agreeing to that. So that way it doesn't get confused with the Universal Protocol and the WHO checklist.
AMC: We had 28 hospitals from across the country participate in AORN's first ever National Time Out Day video campaign. How encouraging is it to see such participation in a project like this?
Groah: I think this is really exciting because, what it means for 28 facilities to send in videos, the time and energy it took to coordinate that in their operating rooms, means to me that there was an incredible amount of thought being focused on this topic.
AMC: What's the educational value of having videos and being able to see this?
Taking the examples that are on some of the videos - picking out the best of the best, so to speak - and having them available to facilities all across the country, they can look at them and use them as an example of what are the best ways to do it. They can show these videos to their teams, for example, so they can see the team approach to a Time Out. You can show these videos and they can see where anesthesia, surgeons, nursing and surgical technologists are all working together to make this happen, and that it can be done well. There is success to be seen out there in taking the team approach.
Groah: What else would you like to add?
This project has demonstrated the excitement and the interest that there is. I believe that the videos have added extra touch to it and created the idea that people want to show what they're doing, and that they are excited to tie into something that's at the national level. I think it gives us some opportunity to look at how we can use this concept moving forward in other areas, and how we can use these examples to help educate as well.
Linda K. Groah, RN, MSN, CNOR, CNAA, FAAN, has been the CEO/executive director of the Association of periOperative Registered Nurses (AORN) since March 2007. A veteran perioperative nursing executive, Groah has devoted her entire career to perioperative nursing practice, education, and executive management. After graduating from St. Luke's School of Nursing in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Groah began work as a staff nurse in the OR. Her previous professional positions include international healthcare consultation, chief operating officer of Kaiser Foundation Hospital in San Francisco, Calif, nurse executive for Kaiser Foundation Hospital-San Francisco and Kaiser Foundation Hospital-South San Francisco, Calif; director of nursing OR-PACU-Surgery Center at the University of California San Francisco Hospitals and Clinics; and OR director at the Medical Center of Central Georgia in Macon, Ga. In 1989, she received the Award for Excellence in Perioperative Nursing. In addition to her textbook, "OR Nursing: Perioperative Practice," she has published numerous articles and contributed to major nursing texts. For her outstanding contributions to the profession and to health care, Groah was inducted as a fellow into the American Academy of Nursing in 2000.
Read more news in AORN Management Connections.
Linda Groah: I think the most important thing about National Time Out Day is it has a focus. And with all the organizations we have supporting it, it really shows that everyone understands this is important. So the focus on National Time Out Day is exactly that - it raises that awareness. I really think this year's theme, "Every Day is Time Out Day," is a great way to focus the changes that need to occur.
Wrong side and site surgery continues to be a problem in this country, and it's really perplexing to try and understand why that continues to be an issue. One of the things that we think may be a dilemma for people in the clinical areas is that we do have the World Health Organization (WHO) surgical checklist and we have the Universal Protocol from Joint Commission. AORN encourages the Time Out through the Correct Site Surgery Tool Kit and National Time Out Day. But we basically have a process that is not standardized, and secondly confusing people as to which one is which. One of the things that I think National Time Out Day will do is help people refocus and say, 'This is what's important: The Time Out." And the Time Out is exactly that--time to say what side and what site we are we doing on this patient and everyone in the operating room agreeing to that. So that way it doesn't get confused with the Universal Protocol and the WHO checklist.
AMC: We had 28 hospitals from across the country participate in AORN's first ever National Time Out Day video campaign. How encouraging is it to see such participation in a project like this?
Groah: I think this is really exciting because, what it means for 28 facilities to send in videos, the time and energy it took to coordinate that in their operating rooms, means to me that there was an incredible amount of thought being focused on this topic.
AMC: What's the educational value of having videos and being able to see this?
Taking the examples that are on some of the videos - picking out the best of the best, so to speak - and having them available to facilities all across the country, they can look at them and use them as an example of what are the best ways to do it. They can show these videos to their teams, for example, so they can see the team approach to a Time Out. You can show these videos and they can see where anesthesia, surgeons, nursing and surgical technologists are all working together to make this happen, and that it can be done well. There is success to be seen out there in taking the team approach.
Groah: What else would you like to add?
This project has demonstrated the excitement and the interest that there is. I believe that the videos have added extra touch to it and created the idea that people want to show what they're doing, and that they are excited to tie into something that's at the national level. I think it gives us some opportunity to look at how we can use this concept moving forward in other areas, and how we can use these examples to help educate as well.
Linda K. Groah, RN, MSN, CNOR, CNAA, FAAN, has been the CEO/executive director of the Association of periOperative Registered Nurses (AORN) since March 2007. A veteran perioperative nursing executive, Groah has devoted her entire career to perioperative nursing practice, education, and executive management. After graduating from St. Luke's School of Nursing in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Groah began work as a staff nurse in the OR. Her previous professional positions include international healthcare consultation, chief operating officer of Kaiser Foundation Hospital in San Francisco, Calif, nurse executive for Kaiser Foundation Hospital-San Francisco and Kaiser Foundation Hospital-South San Francisco, Calif; director of nursing OR-PACU-Surgery Center at the University of California San Francisco Hospitals and Clinics; and OR director at the Medical Center of Central Georgia in Macon, Ga. In 1989, she received the Award for Excellence in Perioperative Nursing. In addition to her textbook, "OR Nursing: Perioperative Practice," she has published numerous articles and contributed to major nursing texts. For her outstanding contributions to the profession and to health care, Groah was inducted as a fellow into the American Academy of Nursing in 2000.
Read more news in AORN Management Connections.