Electrosurgery may be hazardous, so it is important that clinicians understand how electricity behaves and relates to electrosurgical function and applications can contribute to its safe use. Knowledge of the intraoperative and postoperative medical and nursing considerations and interventions can impact positive patient outcomes.

Gloves are a common medical device used as barrier protection in the medical field. This continuing education discusses how latex surgical gloves are being replaced with synthetic alternatives to create latex-safe environments.

In this session Dr. Nava will discuss how nurses, through leadership and advocacy, can drive conversations and policy changes at the organizational, local, state, and national levels that dismantle discriminatory structures and ensure equitable healthcare access and delivery.

This program defines the characteristics of hazardous drugs, identifies groups of HCWs at greatest risk, and describes potential routes and effects of occupational exposure. Recommendations offered by government agencies and professional associations for the use of personal protective equipment (PPE) are summarized, focusing on the proper use of gloves and gowns when handling chemotherapy drugs.

In this educational activity, you’ll gain the necessary knowledge to implement and fine tune an efficient robotic surgery program in the acute care setting. You’ll hear about best practices to achieve programmatic alignment, what staffing considerations you should make, and how to implement recruitment and retention ideas tailored to the unique demands of the program.

As part of a safe patient handling and mobility program, overhead lifts can help you mobilize patients earlier and often — and help mitigate complications from immobility. This ceiling mounted patient lift can help improve patient outcomes - including few falls and shorter lengths of stay in the hospital/ICU.

This continuing education activity provides a brief overview of the clinical impact and economic burden of SSIs today. The key characteristics of sterilization wrap materials that help reduce the risk for SSIs, with a focus on nonwoven double layer sterilization wrap, including test data that should be obtained from the manufacturer, will be reviewed.

Upon completion of this activity, the learner will gain knowledge regarding the common practices and advantages of surgical stapling along with the potential complications; understand tissue thickness and its relevance to cartridge selection; and learn how surgical staplers are selected and used today.

Nurses and infection preventionists are balancing staff and patient safety, prevention of hospital-acquired infections, and the ever-changing regulatory environment. This program focuses on isolation gowns because they are a critical element of PPE, in that they prevent staff and patient exposure to infectious diseases and improve patient outcomes.

Surgical draping incorporates principles of aseptic technique to optimize patient outcomes. Drapes are designed to provide a physical barrier, optimize exposure of the operative site, cover supplies and equipment, and reduce the risk of surgical site infection.

This educational activity is for the healthcare professional who is involved in the care of patients who are at high risk for arthritis and comorbidities, such as obesity and depression. At-risk individuals include women and those of African American and Hispanic descent. This group demonstrates “health disparities”, which are preventable differences in health status.

Safe patient handling when positioning a patient is not only important for staff safety as it is for patient safety through the appropriate use of equipment and ergonomics. This course will review best practices for safe patient handling, a culture of safety, and proper ergonomics while positioning a patient in the operating room and how to mitigate occupational injury.

This educational program identifies the clinical considerations related to surgical instrument care, cleaning, test functioning, routine maintenance, and basic repairs. This information will help you keep instruments in excellent condition so patients can receive the best care possible.

A colecistectomia laparoscópica (CL) é o tratamento ideal para cálculos biliares e outras doenças da vesícula biliar. Embora se tenha tornado um procedimento muito comum, efetuado com frequência em ambiente ambulatorial, a CL ainda apresenta riscos para o doente. Cada elemento da equipa perioperatória, incluindo enfermeiros, técnicos cirúrgicos e profissionais de processamento estéril, desempenha um papel crucial na otimização da segurança e da eficácia da CL. Esta atividade de aprendizagem tratará da incidência e da prevalência de cálculos biliares sintomáticos, das principais técnicas cirúrgicas estabelecidas para garantir a remoção segura da vesícula biliar e dos aspetos e atividades de segurança cruciais para o reprocessamento de instrumentos laparoscópicos e materiais cirúrgicos, como os clipes do ducto cístico, que ajudam todos os doentes com CL a evitar complicações e obter um efeito pós-operatório ideal.

This ebook is intended to supplement education and training of vascular vessel mapping protocols for creation of an endovascular arteriovenous fistula (endoAVF) utilizing the approach with dual magnetic catheters and application of radiofrequency energy to create an endoAVF (dual catheter system) anastomosis.

This ebook discusses foreign debris-initiated post-surgical complications and their associated pathological mechanisms. It reviews the sources of debris contamination, including a description of foreign microbody characteristics that can further amplify pathological responses. Strategies to determine the presence of lint in the OR and recommendations for minimizing their presence are highlighted.

This continuing education activity will address the role of environmental contamination in the transmission of HAIs, describe the latest research on environmental hygiene in the operating room (OR), and list the monitoring methods available to objectively evaluate environmental hygiene. Process improvement methods and new technologies such as self-disinfecting surfaces and “no touch” area cleaners utilizing ultraviolet (UV) irradiation and hydrogen peroxide vapor will be described.

The advantages of using an online system for direct access to valuable information about a procedure pack program will be discussed. The five key functions of an online pack management system will be outlined. Best practices for standardization of procedural supplies across an integrated delivery network or individual hospital will be described.

In the current era of antibiotic stewardship, with the prevalence of bacterial resistance to multiple antibiotic agents, there has been an interest in using perioperative antiseptics to reduce microbial contamination in the surgical site before closure and possibly reduce the need for antibiotic agents. This program is intended to better understand the proper implications of the different types of wound irrigations in relation to SSIs, cost, and efficiency.

There are several therapeutic modalities available today that either use the body’s natural thermoregulatory mechanisms to relieve pain, encourage healing, or enhance the body’s ability to maintain a normal core temperature. Therefore, nurses and other healthcare professionals must remain aware of the use of localized temperature therapy as an effective treatment modality.