ensure the use of smoke evacuation systems.
Working the inside
Andrea Dyer, MSN, RN, an OR travel nurse currently based at Boston
Children's Hospital, has made it her mission to advocate for smoke
evacuation systems within her own institutions and with legislators.
Like many surgical professionals, she once had no idea about the
harm in which she was placing herself in every day.
Then she temporarily shifted away from working in the OR. "My
asthma got better, my skin rashes went away," she remembers. "I'd
think about my best friends in the OR, still breathing in smoke, and
was even more motivated to push for mandatory evacuation."
Ms. Dyer interacts whenever she can with legislators; for example, she
worked closely with the Association of periOperative Registered Nurses
(AORN) on advancing legislation in Oregon before she moved back east.
For Ms. Dyer, it's about getting the right message in front of the right
people, because there are still large knowledge gaps among public offi-
cials, healthcare executives and many clinicians. She's determined to
spread the word to all of them.
If you're looking to become a smoke evacuation champion, it's
important to establish credibility with newcomers around the con-
cept. "I start with education and awareness," says Ms. Dyer. "I build a
rapport first, personally relate to people. Then I explain that there are
more than 150 chemicals in surgical smoke, and it's worse than ciga-
rettes because we're filtering live viruses such as hepatitis in our
lungs.'"
Ms. Dyer has needed to recalibrate the thoughts of clinicians who
had negative impressions of smoke evacuation systems years ago. She
tells them newer streamlined devices are quieter and less obtrusive
than previous models.
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