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Only after a nurse tripped on a cord during an arthroscopy did St. Luke's Cornwall Hospital in Newburgh, N.Y., purchase cord covers, says Laura Delarose, RN, the clinical nurse manager. Only after a surgeon slipped on the wet floor by the scrub sink did Sound Eye and Laser in Seattle, Wash., turn its attention to keeping the floors dry, says Patricia Walat, RN, BS, the nurse manager. And only after surgeons and staff complained of sloshing around in water during arthroscopies did a hospital invest in water collection devices.
Tales of 'Whoa!'
The risks for slips, trips and falls are everywhere you look … and even where you can't see. With the rise in minimally invasive surgeries, most procedures today are done with the lights off, notes Ms. Schuldt, so you can add darkness to the growing list of hazards lurking inside your ORs. Rushing, too.
Take the circulating RN at Chickasaw Nation Medical Center in Ada, Okla., who went dashing after hours to get some paperwork from pre-op. As luck would have it, at the time she was dashing, the night cleaning crew was mopping the floors and hadn't yet posted up the WET FLOOR signs. The nurse fell and sustained a large laceration to her scalp plus an injury to her shoulder that will require
