Canadian operating room nursing journal
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Can Oper Room Nurs J · Dec 1999
What makes your day? A study of the quality of worklife of OR nurses.
From data obtained in this study, the weak or negligible influences on the quality of worklife of OR nurses are: Organizational Structure Leadership, and Organizational Learning. Things that matter to OR nurses and that influence their quality of worklife are: Collaborative Decision-Making, Multiskilled Workers, Change, Organizational Culture, Locus of Control; and the most important influence of all- Teamwork. So, now when the question is asked "What Makes Your Day?" The answer is clear--at the end of the day, it all boils down to the most fundamental of all answers--People. ⋯ Questions that must be answered: Are nurses included in decisions made? Do nurses have what they need to work with? Are they given a reasonable workload? Are nurses part of a team that values them and their unique contribution to patient care? In the words of Senator Lucie Pépin (1999): "We must turn our anger first, into passion, then into action. A hostile or unpleasant workplace must not be tolerated!" With confidence we must be assertive as we look to improve our work environment. Yes, we can do our part, but now it is time for the other stakeholders to pay attention!
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Pulmonary Edema associated with negative airway pressure caused by upper airway obstruction is a most serious complications in anaesthetic practice (Tami et al, 1986). Laryngospasm associated with intubation and general anaesthesia is the most common cause of upper airway obstruction leading to negative pressure pulmonary edema (NPPE) in the anaesthetic adult (Tami et al, 1986). ⋯ NPPE appears to be related to markedly negative intrathoracic pressure due to forced inspiration against a closed upper airway resulting in transudation of fluid from pulmonary capillaries to the interstitium. The following is a presentation of a case of a healthy young male who developed NPPE secondary to airway obstruction caused by biting down on the endotracheal tube while awakening from general anaesthesia.
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Many nurse theorists have emerged in the midst of the Nursing Profession's struggle for recognition as a science. To gain autonomy we as nurses must first examine our personal philosophies of nursing. ⋯ I propose that we must change how we define our practice from the use of the medical model to our own model. Although we work closely with medicine, we are not physicians or medical aids; we are nurses.