By Esther Espuñes, EORNA President Over the past two months, we have explored what makes surgery safer—from preventing surgical site infections and protecting sterility, to managing risk, measuring quality and learning from adverse events. Throughout these reflections, one thing has become increasingly clear: perioperative nurses are at the heart of safe surgical care. But being…
By Esther Espuñes, EORNA President Last week, I reflected on why measuring quality matters and how meaningful indicators can help us identify risks, understand variation and improve perioperative care. But data alone cannot create safer systems. We also need to learn from what goes wrong. Adverse events, near misses and sentinel events are difficult moments…
By Esther Espuñes, EORNA President Last week, I reflected on the importance of anticipating risk and learning from errors, near misses and sentinel events. But prevention and improvement require something more: we need to know whether our actions are actually making a difference. Quality in perioperative nursing cannot be based on perception alone. What we…
By Esther Espuñes, EORNA President Last week, I reflected on the silent work of Sterile Services and the essential role of perioperative nurses in protecting patients beyond the operating room. This week, I want to bring that focus back into the OR, where multiple risks come together in a complex and constantly changing environment. Risk…
By Esther Espuñes, EORNA President Last week, I reflected on sterility as the invisible foundation of safe surgery. But behind every sterile instrument and every safe surgical procedure, there is a team whose work often remains unseen: Sterile Services, or Central Sterile Services Department (CSSD). A safe CSSD depends first on a well-designed workflow, ensuring…
By Esther Espuñes, EORNA President Last week, I reflected on why safe surgery begins before the first incision. This week, I want to focus on a principle that defines perioperative excellence: every step matters. The 7S Bundle (developed by Surgical Infection Consultants Maureen Spencer and Peter Graves) reminds us that preventing surgical site infections is…
By Esther Espuñes, EORNA President Last week, I reflected on how organisational culture creates the foundation for safe surgery. This week, I want to focus on where safety first becomes tangible: the preoperative pathway. The quality of surgical outcomes is often determined before a patient enters the operating room. Prehabilitation reminds us that preparing patients…
By Esther Espuñes, EORNA President Last week, I reflected on why perioperative nurses are essential to safe surgery. But safety cannot depend on individual commitment alone. It needs to be embedded in the way an organisation thinks, leads and works. High Reliability Organisations offer an important perspective. They operate in complex environments where the consequences…
By Esther Espuñes, EORNA President As perioperative nurses, we sometimes underestimate the complexity of what we bring to the operating room. We are there to speak for the patient when they cannot speak for themselves. We coordinate people, information and processes in an environment where every detail matters. We anticipate what may be needed, identify…
By Aina Hague, EORNA Secretary Nursing has long been a cornerstone of healthcare, yet across Europe, we are facing an alarming crisis: fewer young people are choosing nursing as a career. The OECD’s latest findings paint a worrying picture—by 2030, many European countries may not have enough nurses to meet demand. For perioperative nursing, where…
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