Outpatient Surgery Magazine - Subscribers

OR Excellence Awards 2015 - September 2015 - Outpatient Surgery Magazine

Outpatient Surgery Magazine, providing current information on Surgical Services, Surgical Facility Administration, Outpatient Surgery News and Trends, OR Excellence and more.

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1 6 8 O U T P A T 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 | S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 5 Can't We All Just Get Along? Is on-the-job behavior bogging us down? S ometimes it feels like I've been working in surgery for 50 years. From the gener- al look of things, I may be here for 50 more. Does seniority bring wisdom? It depends. We older nurses know where all the bodies are buried, so to speak, but even I can't explain some of the behavior — or laps- es in same — that I've observed in and around the OR. • Hand hygiene hold-outs. Could someone please tell me why a nurse, of all people, would lick her finger to turn pages in a manual, chart or stack of staff meeting handouts? It's a bad enough habit for a Wal- Mart cashier reaching into the change drawer, but in a surgical setting it's just irresponsible in every way. Should I don PPEs to interact with certain co-workers, or should I just hit the hand sanitizer and surface disinfection wipes afterward? Maybe this should be a detail to look out for on your next round of hand hygiene compliance surveys. • Physician, heal thyself. Other bad behaviors would be totally out of line in most any workplace. Dear surgeons, we know that for some of you, even just walking through the OR doors pushes your stress levels into the red zone. As your team, we have done everything humanly possible to make your life (well, this case anyway) go as well as possi- ble. We're not setting out to sabotage your patient outcomes. We love patients! (Even the seemingly growing number that make us want to put on hazmat suits to transfer and position them.) So kicking equip- ment, throwing instruments, bellowing and other viciousness is coun- terproductive. We aren't offended by your expletives — we string together some pretty colorful ones when we find out we've been assigned to your cases — but maybe you ought to consider anger B E H I N D C L O S E D D O O R S Paula Watkins, RN, CNOR

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