EUROPEAN PERIOPERATIVE CARE NURSES IN NEED OF TRAINING AND FACED WITH PATIENT SAFETY ISSUES :

A perioperative nurse works in a very specific environment : an operating room. She/he has two main functions: circulating nurse and scrub nurse. In some countries, she/he assists the anaesthetist; in others, this work is done by a nurse anaesthetist.

As a circulating nurse, she/he is responsible for the entire organisation of the operating room in which she/he works. She/He is the guarantor of the patient’s safety thanks to her global vision of the work in which she/he participates and which takes place before her/his eyes.

As a scrub nurse, she/he works in the sterile area next to the surgeon. She/he will be scrubbing throughout the procedure. She/he has to dress sterilely, receive the trays with the instruments, count them, set up her/his tables, etc. and then instrument the surgeon during the whole procedure. To do this, she/he must know the operating techniques and the medical devices that will be associated with them in order to be able to anticipate the surgeon’s gesture and give him the right instrument at the right time with perfect ergonomics. She/he can also assist the surgeon during certain steps if he needs it.

However, in most European countries, even though specialised training exists, it is not compulsory for a nurse to have followed it before working in an operating theatre. However, patients are getting older and older, staff turnover is becoming more frequent, medical and technical innovations are becoming more and more advanced and frequent, and operating theatres are becoming more and more multicultural with more and more temporary staff. Ambulatory surgery requires fluid, fast and safe reactions. The tension among the staff working in the operating rooms is very much present. Integrating new nurses without training is a major challenge that does not take into account patient and staff safety issues.

In order to overcome this situation at European level, the profession has set up two previous projects, KSM (Key Skill Management) and KSMOR (KSM in Operating Room). Both projects focus on the evaluation of the practices of nurses working in operating rooms. They provide OR managers with tools to monitor the quality and practices of their teams through an application. The current project must therefore complete it by illustrating the ergonomics of operating room practices.

THE ANSWER: A MULTILINGUAL EDUCATIONAL PLATFORM WITH A HUNDRED OR PRACTICES VIDEOS ILLUSTRATING THE ERGONOMICS OF OPERATING ROOM PROCEDURES :

The objective of the project is to provide a platform that enables all nurses to acquire the necessary practices to work in the operating room. Educational paths differentiated by surgical specialities and by type of instruments, self-assessment, versatility table, individual profiles, are all data that the OR manager or the nurse can access on the platform.

PROFESSIONAL PARTNERS INVOLVED IN THE DAY-TO-DAY RUNNING OF OPERATING THEATRES :

The project coordinator is a Belgian university (Haute Ecole Léonard de Vinci); five universities that train nurses are also involved (Fin, SW, BE, CSR) as well as a national association of perioperative nurses (GR); the developer of the KSM method (FR) and a technical partner (BE) are also involved. Three professional groups representing the profession are also involved as associated partners: EORNA (Europe), AFISO (Belgium) and UNAIBODE (France)

A PROJECT CAREFULLY PREPARED BY PERIOPERATIVE NURSES FOR PERIOPERATIVE NURSES :

The project was organised as a network of processes, each headed by a pilot and a co-pilot. All activities were planned with improvement loops for each videos. The list of practices was prepared over several months in order to have, at the start of the project, a perfectible list of videos representing the essential function of the perioperative care nurse.

SCENARIOS DESIGNED BY OPERATING THEATRE PROFESSIONALS, PUT INTO IMAGES AND TESTED BY THE PROFESSION :

All the videos are based on scenarios designed and validated by operating room staff. Each scenario brings to life practices and gestures to which are added comments and a realistic image processing.

A unique educational tool

to calm and facilitate the integration of new nurses in the operating theatre, to make the surgeon’s work safer and improve patient safety. Any operating theatre in the world can have access to the video corpus and appropriate the platform.