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Snuffing Out Surgical Smoke - Outpatient Surgery Magazine - December 2019

Outpatient Surgery Magazine, providing current information on Surgical Services, Surgical Facility Administration, Outpatient Surgery News and Trends, OR Excellence and more.

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Philadelphia, Pa. "We didn't have to convince anyone of the impor- tance of smoke evacuation after our presentation, which inspired us to push for change." Hand out questionnaires during staff meetings to gauge how much your staff already knows about the dangers of surgical smoke, sug- gests Ms. McNulty. Keep a tally of how many evacuators are used before your educational efforts, a month later and 3 months out to understand how well your message gets across and how sustainable it is. She believes the facts speak for themselves when it comes to elimi- nating exposure to surgical smoke, and more surgical professionals need to be informed of the risks involved. "I honestly believe one of the main reasons smoke evacuation is not being used is due to a lack of knowledge," says Ms. McNulty. "Constantly talking about the sub- ject is a way to keep it fresh in everyone's minds." After multiple educational sessions at Littleton Adventist Hospital, 94% of the staff knew about the dangers of what they were breathing in during surgery, a significantly higher percentage than before the infor- mation was disseminated. "Our team recognized what they were being exposed to on a daily basis," says Ms. Prince, "and they wanted to take action." Push for change Going smoke-free in the OR takes plenty of hard work and internal campaigning, especially when trying to convince surgeons, some of whom don't fully believe surgical smoke causes long-term side effects or illnesses — perhaps because they spend only a fraction of the time around smoke compared with the nurses and the rest of the surgical team members who work long days in the OR. That's partly why much of the push for mandatory smoke evacuation across the country 3 8 • O U T PA T I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E • D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 9

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