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CUTTING REMARKS
ments, be they cloth or synthetic. However, the gowns that we trialed
were better suited for Nanook of the North. They had to have an insu-
lation rating of at least 90! With these gowns, 5 minutes into the case I
was drenched in perspiration. "Ice pack to my neck STAT!" was a
common refrain. During one particularly long and difficult surgery, I
developed heat stroke. Three liters of Lactated Ringer's later the
cramps subsided. The ice packs to the groin were no fun either. Our
administration was faced with the decision — either recycle the
gowns or the surgeons. I guess we won.
Grocery shopping
As long as nurses and physicians have a say in matters, patient care
will not be compromised. To quote famous football coach Bill
Parcells: "If they want you to cook the dinner, at least they ought to
let you shop for some of the groceries." OSM
Dr. Kelly (
johnda k 4@g mail.com
) is an orthopedic surgeon/ sports-shoulder
specialist who practices in Philadelphia, Pa.
To safeguard our 3-minute dry time on surgical
preps, we call up a website (
online-
stopwatch.com/bomb-countdown
) on our monitor
that counts down from 3 minutes until a "bomb"
explodes on the screen. This way, everyone
knows the required dry time has been met. It's a
fun and effective way to mark the dry time.
Mary Haugen, MA, RN
TRIA Orthopaedic Center
Bloomington, Minn.
mary.haugen@tria.com
DROP THE BOMB
A Fun Way to Mark the Prep Dry Time
TICK, TICK ... BOOM! Surgeons
must wait until the bomb goes off
to begin the case.
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