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.

Documentation is an essential element of nursing practice to promote communication amongst care team members and provide a medical-legal record of patient care. This program outlines factors that influence documentation and cognitive burden, strategies for reducing burden, and real-world outcomes associated with decreased documentation burden.

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.

Join AORN's Center for Nursing Leadership for a discussion about revolutionizing your on-site staff wellness programs to improve retention. Hear a case study of programming that has demonstrated results over the past eight years – and how COVID and new generations in the workforce are changing the focus to meet changing employee needs.

Key characteristics of successful Peritoneal Dialysis (PD) nurses are those nurses that are knowledgeable, confident, efficient, organized and dedicated experts in PD therapy. This education activity offers a comprehensive approach for nurses who want to embark on a PD learning journey. Find out what PD is and how it works, including strategies to develop a structured PD patient training program, based on the International Society of Peritoneal Dialysis (ISPD) syllabus.

The intraoperative transfusion of blood and blood products is associated with increased healthcare costs and negative patient outcomes. To address these concerns and limit unnecessary transfusions, a variety of patient blood management strategies are available, including the use of topical hemostatic agents.

Periprosthetic joint infection (PJI) after total joint arthroplasty is a significant complication, and diagnosis and treatment are challenging, which makes prevention the most compelling strategy. This program defines PJI and explains its incidence, pathogenesis, risk factors, clinical consequences, and financial costs. The implications of biofilm formation for the diagnosis and treatment of PJI are discussed. Preoperative, perioperative, intraoperative, and postoperative preventive strategies are described in detail, focusing on the benefits of irrigation with high-osmolarity surfactant solutions.

This continuing education activity will provide an overview of how AORNs Guidelines are updated, insight into proposed changes to the guideline, and how perioperative professionals can provide feedback on the proposed changes.

This one-hour recorded panel discussion from AORN Center for Nursing Leadership’s Peer-to-Peer Solutions program will leave you with actionable, creative models to try in your facility.

Review the origins and mechanisms of unconscious bias and examine recent research in management and bias reducing strategies to assist perioperative nurses and other healthcare professionals meet their primary objective of providing high quality care for all patients.

As hospital systems adopt enhanced environmental hygiene protocols to combat COVID-19 and the ongoing threat of healthcare-acquired infections (HAIs), interest and demand for ultraviolet (UV) devices for whole room disinfection has increased. Learn about core UV device operational and safety features to inform the selection of proven, effective, and safe UV devices.

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.

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.

This program summarizes the risks associated with handling needles and sharps in the healthcare environment and describes how implementation of a comprehensive sharps safety program can mitigate these risks.