5 Ways to Quickly Tackle Practice Challenges Using Evidence

AORN guidelines include the evidence that supports practices for safe surgery. The true value of this wealth of information is providing access to the content in a way that perioperative nurses can use it, when and how they need it.

Wanting to make the guidelines easy to use and applicable to day-to-day clinical issues, AORN has been working to provide better access to its guideline collection, explains Ramona Conner, MSN, RN, CNOR, FAAN, the recently retired editor-in-chief of AORN’s guidelines.

Conner’s talking about the new AORN Facility Reference Center and says its virtual doors are open.

Accessing Evidence

Conner ranks time as the critical factor to making perioperative nursing evidence for practice more accessible.

“Maybe you are planning positioning for a high-risk patient or need to talk to a colleague about pretreating a surgical instrument—there is very limited time in our fast-paced work environment that allows for pulling out a large book and sifting through to the information you need,” Conner acknowledges.

“We need access to the guidelines when we need it and in what format we need it for many different applications in our practice.”

Working closely with perioperative nurses on the front lines and with information technology professionals, the new Reference Center aims to make the guidelines as easy and robust as a simple Google search, while also providing bookmarking and teaching tools to support research, policy development, and practice.

Here are 5 challenges that the new Facility Reference Center solves:

1. You need to search on a topic that could be in multiple guidelines.

   Conner describes the new search capability for the guidelines as “very easy to use and intuitive.”

   Say you are updating your policy on venous thromboembolism (VTE) and want to include updates from all of AORN’s guidelines. Conner explains that a search on VTE in the new Reference Center will bring up the current VTE guideline as well as other mentions of VTE, such as communication strategies to prevent VTE in AORN’s new Guideline for Team Communication.




2. You need to share a quick look at a complete guideline.

   A quick-view tab to the right of the guideline in the Reference Center provides bullet points and how-to videos that are useful for novices and experts.




3. You need to bookmark a guideline recommendation or implementation tool for later access.

   Anyone conducting research or seeking evidence for a specific topic can bookmark the information to reference later. The bookmark is stored right on the homepage making it easier to locate.




4. You need to share evidence-based recommendations or tools for guideline implementation and team training.

   Guidelines recommendations and tools including PowerPoint presentations, case studies, and policy and procedure templates can easily be sent to anyone on the perioperative team by simply clicking the new Share button.




5. You need to ask a specific question.

   A searchable FAQ section provides answers to commonly asked questions with links to related training videos and education that promote a clearer understanding of safe practices. For example, a question on recommended cleaning of flexible endoscopes includes options for accessing video instructions on leak testing.

   The Facility Reference Center also provides immediate access to a guideline and its associated implementation resources as soon as they are published electronically, Conner shares. AORN can quickly update this content with new and revised guidelines and other guideline implementation resources.”

   Facilities and individuals who already have a digital subscription to the Guidelines for Perioperative Practice have automatically been transitioned to the new reference center.

Learn more about the Facility Reference Center.

Already Subscribed? Access the Facility Reference Center.

MEMBER RESOURCES

Facilities can purchase a group membership to receive complementary full access to the Facility Reference Center for one year.