patients than a cooler environment would be.
"Our surgeons cannot operate at the temperatures AORN recom-
mends," says Patricia Huber, MA, RN, nurse manager at Jack C.
Montgomery VAMC in Muskogee, Okla.
"The OR temperature has a significant impact on the surgeon's com-
fort level in the room," agrees Beth Hurley, BSN, RN, CASC, adminis-
trator of the Phoenix (Ariz.) Children's Surgery Center. "I would rather
ensure the temperature in the room is cooler, the surgeon isn't sweat-
ing profusely and the patient is warmed by heated air."
The recommendation doesn't take into account surgical team mem-
bers' clothing and gowns, says a perioperative educator from Indiana.
"You cannot have team members passed out from heat!" she says.
Indeed, adds a clinical education coordinator from California. "Often
surgeons are sweating profusely, which is a greater risk than a tempera-
ture of 66°F."
Flash point
Many respondents don't see the sense in the recommendation that
immediate-use steam sterilization — terminology that has evolved
from what used to be called "flashing" — be avoided if at all possible.
Those doing ophthalmological procedures tend to be especially
skeptical. "It is more than adequate for eyes, since we have good data
to show it does not lead to increased infections," says Jon Weston,
MD, owner of the Weston Eye Center in Roseburg, Ore. "These guide-
lines were well-intentioned, but not science-based initiatives."
A Las Vegas director of nursing agrees. "Infection rates haven't changed
one iota from when it was common practice to flash cataract trays to
now," she says.
The distinction seems arbitrary to those in other specialties, as
well. The idea that flashing "is only OK in an emergency," strikes
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