SATS 2009 Final Program - Scandinavian Association for Thoracic ...

S07
SATNU ORAL ABSTRACT SESSION
S07:1
HOW DOES NURSING COMPETENCE EXPRESS ITSELF IN THE OPERATING ROOM ?
Walsoe Charlotte 1
1) The Heart Centre, Rigshospitalet, Denmark
An ongoing shortage of nurses in the operating room and generel recruitment difficulties challenges the Danish
health system. As the shortage will continue in the years to come, politicians question the neccesity of exclusively
nurses in the operating room and want to solve the situation by employing staff with a different education. The
operating room nurses have no tradition documenting the essence and quality of nursing, and consequently now
stand with a serious challenge in the discussion of the importance of nurses and nursing in the operating room.
A study was conducted with the question “How does nursing competence and quality express itself in the operating
room? ”.
A search in CINAHL, PubMed and SweMed+ using the terms “nursing and operating room” resulted in 8 qualified
articles, which have been used in this study.
Patricia Benner was used in the theoretical analysis of the articles regarding the competence and essence of nursing
in the operating room.
Theories of the patients’ course of stay in hospital and quality control were used in the study.
The nursing competence express itself in:
- Caring - caring and technology are combined inseparable partners.
- Congruity and continuity during the patients’ course of stay in hospital – the patients should recieve the same kind
of nursing goals, vision and perspective throughout the course of their stay in hospital.
- Safety and quality control – nurses must continously focus on development and an Evidence based practice.
S07:2
THE OPERATING ROOM NURSES EXPERIENCES OF THE MEDICAL EQUIPMENT IN THEIR DAILY WORK
Roman-Emanuel Christine 1 , Hägglund Doris 2
1) Sahlgrenska University Hospital, 2) Örebro University, Sweden
Objective
In the operating team, the operating room nurses are responsible for handling and maintenance of the medical
equipment. The knowledge about the operating room nurse’s apprehension of work with medical equipment is
limited. Increased knowledge in this area may increase nurse’s understanding of their role and ultimately, patient
safety. The aim of this study was to describe how the operating room nurse’s experience the importance of the
medical equipment in their daily work and their competence in medical equipment.
Methods
Forty-six operating room nurses working at a University Hospital were included in a prospective qualitative study.
37/46 answered the questionnaire with tree open-ended questions. The answers of the questionnaire were analysed
through a qualitative content analysis method according to Graneheim and Lundmann.
Results
The results demonstrated three main themes. The first theme described an increased understanding of how important
it is to keep up your own competence within the field to ensure patient safety. The second theme described that the
operating room nurse apprehend herself as a key-person in the operating-room teamwork with medical equipment.
The third theme described positive and negative effects of the operating room nurse’s role as responsible for the
medical equipment on the working-environment.
Conclusion
The main conclusion is that the competence level of operating room nurses and their experiences of medical
equipment in their daily work influences safety for the patient, nursing and teamwork in the operating ward.
STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN 53