AORN journal
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The administration of inhalational anesthesia is a major component of providing care for patients undergoing operative or other invasive procedures. The perioperative nurse should understand the effects of anesthesia and actions of anesthetic agents (eg, unconsciousness, analgesia, anesthesia, muscle relaxation) and carefully assess the patient for contraindications to the anesthetic proposed, understand its effect on the patient, and understand how anesthesia affects the care provided. This Back to Basics article provides an overview of inhalational anesthesia and serves as a guide for nurses in the perioperative care of anesthetized patients.
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We implemented a quality improvement project to reduce noise levels in the OR in response to complaints from the anesthesia staff members at two community hospitals. Excessive noise has been shown to increase staff member stress, fatigue, distraction, and ineffective communication, which can lead to medical errors. We measured noise levels during anesthesia induction and emergence for 118 different surgical procedures and compared noise levels before and after the improvement project intervention. Staff member education and noise reduction strategies, which included signage, prominent noise meters, and specific suggestions to staff members, helped to significantly reduce the noise level during the anesthetic induction and emergence phases of OR procedures.
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Comparative Study
Comparing new-technology passive warming versus traditional passive warming methods for optimizing perioperative body core temperature.
Hypothermia puts surgical patients at risk for adverse outcomes. Traditional passive warming methods are mostly ineffective in reducing hypothermia. New-technology passive warming holds promise as an effective method for promoting and sustaining normothermia throughout surgery. ⋯ The traditionally warmed cohort had no change in temperature (35.9° C ± 0.6° C presurgery vs 35.9° C ± 0.7° C postsurgery; t = 0.47; P = .66). The intervention cohort showed a significant increase in temperature (35.75° C ± 0.52° C presurgery vs 36.30° C ± 0.53° C postsurgery; t = 4.64; P < .001). A repeated-measure analysis of variance adjusting for surgery duration and fluid administration confirmed the significance (F = 17.254; P < .001), suggesting that new-technology passive warming may effectively complement active warming to reduce perioperative hypothermia.