use the equipment and see the smoke that's produced from surgery
with his own eyes. He also got a chance to speak with our OR nurses
and to learn from the manufacturers whose products can keep the air
clean.
5. Finish line follow-up
Your work's just beginning once a law's enacted. This is an exciting
time for us here in Rhode Island, as our hospital and surgery centers
submit their smoke-free policies to the state Department of Health.
Now it's time to make sure they're putting those policies into practice.
We'll continue to seek feedback from our nurses in our ORs to ensure
these new policies are being followed.
It'll be a bit of a culture change for some surgeons and facilities to
use smoke-evacuation tools, but that's no longer an acceptable excuse
for an unhealthy workplace. The training to use these evacuation sys-
tems is readily available and the cost for a smoke-evacuation pencil is
only about $3 to $5 more than the traditional options.
OSM
A P R I L 2 0 1 9 • O U T PA T I E N T S U R G E R Y. N E T • 7 1
Ms. Policastro (policastrogroup@gmail.com) is the executive director of the
Rhode Island State Nurses Association. Ms. Greenhalgh
(julieanngreenhalgh@gmail.com) is a past president of the Rhode Island chap-
ter of AORN.
