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O U T P AT I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E O N L I N E | F E B R U A R Y 2 0 1 4
instead, our nurses
provide personal
attention from admis-
sion to recovery,
including patient
education and
encouragement. They
have to interface
with pain manage-
ment and understand
the clinical post-op
progress desired for
each procedure.
To that end, our
administrator (who is
a nurse), runs lots of ongoing development for the nurses: day-to-day
education, re-education and competencies on washing hands, moving
patients and the like. No concept is too basic or too advanced. We
recently bought new EKG machines and I guarantee that, if I walked
into the OR right now, anyone assigned to the room would know how
it works and be able to run it.
I'll give you a good example of how crucial this is to practice: We
recently trialed a new mobility headrest table attachment for patient
positioning. It was meant to provide anesthesia a better view and be
less intrusive for the surgeon. Before the first case with the headrest
in use, the administrator had already run 4 in-services with the vendor
and our techs and nurses. All this effort, on something we weren't
even sure we were going to buy! But you know what? That level of
knowledge translated to authentic practice. When the headrest
slowed setup and teardown, and wasn't to the surgeons' liking, we
N E U R O S U R G E R Y
MICRODOSING Our post-op pain management approach consists
of microdosing, or administering smaller doses more often.
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