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SAFETY
Deborah Rideout, RN, BSN, CNOR
5 Keys to Running Effective Fire Drills
Treating dry runs like the real deal hammers home key lessons.
A
re flames likely to erupt in
your ORs? No. Could they?
TIME TO GO Surgical team members prepare to
move a "patient" during a planned fire drill at
Southcoast Health System in New Bedford, Mass.
Yes, and that's why it's
vitally important to run effective
fire drills once a year, however
remote the possibility of using the
practiced responses. Here's how to
ensure your staff gets the most out
of preparing for when every second really does count.
1
Announce it, don't just pull the alarm. It's easy to run a conventional fire
drill: Just pull the alarm and watch surprised surgical team members
scramble. But that's not an effective way to practice fire safety. First, your
surgical team won't get anything out of the unannounced drill, other than
perhaps memories of what they did wrong and anxiety from the confusion
of undefined roles. Most professionals also don't appreciate being set up to
fail by "gotcha" moments, even if there are lessons to be learned from their
mistakes. Announcing when drills will occur might seem counterintuitive,
but having staff participate in the planning and timing of the practice runs
creates team buy-in and lets them practice proper fire response protocols
instead of reacting incorrectly to an ill-timed surprise.
N O V E M B E R 2012 | O U T PAT I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E O N L I N E
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