Current research shows that the number of door openings during surgery is unjustifiably high. It is the Operating room nurses task to ensure a hygienic and aseptic environment throughout the surgery with the goal of minimizing the risk of healthcare associated infection. The study aims to investigate whether the operating room nurse is attentive to the number of door openings during surgery and if the operating room nurse is attentive to the reasons behind the door openings. A pilot study with nine observations was carried out on two smaller hospitals in the region of Västra Götaland. The results showed a significant underestimation of the rated door openings compared with the actual ones.

ABSTRACTIntroduction: Postoperative wound infection is the third most common nosocomial infection in Sweden. The ever-growing problem of antibiotic resistance provides surgical departments a big challenge when it comes to preventing the spread of infection. Operating theatre nurses have a vital role in the prevention of infection. In addition, correct ventilation in the operating theatre is of great importance. The caregiver is responsible for quality assurance of ventilation in the operating theatre, but the work can be delegated to other staff within the department.

ABSTRACT (english)Introduction: The possibility to transplant an organ is an important part of the health care system, which demands great resources and a well functioning organization with a level of high competence. The work with organ donation is complex and brings forward a great amount of different emotions for the operation room nurse. Aim: The aim with the study is to illustrate the Operating room nurses experience when the organ donor is brain dead. Method: Data collection has been performed with semi-structured interviews, which have been interpreted by qualitative manifest analysis. The design of the study is pilot towards a study in full scale.

Background:Incoming medical alarm is a common routine for emergency nurses. Working in these situations may represent a major burden on the individual nurse. Purpose: To investigate emergency room nurses' experiences in receiving medical alerts focused on education, safety, security, skills and experience, and andherence to guidelines. The purpose was also to investigate whether there were any differences in action between the emergency room nurses who had worked longer or shorter period than two years with this.Method:The design was quantitative, comparative and descriptive. Surveys were distributed to 30 nurses who worked in the emergency room at a Swedish hospital.

Background:Incoming medical alarm is a common routine for emergency nurses. Working in these situations may represent a major burden on the individual nurse. Purpose: To investigate emergency room nurses' experiences in receiving medical alerts focused on education, safety, security, skills and experience, and andherence to guidelines. The purpose was also to investigate whether there were any differences in action between the emergency room nurses who had worked longer or shorter period than two years with this.Method:The design was quantitative, comparative and descriptive. Surveys were distributed to 30 nurses who worked in the emergency room at a Swedish hospital.

Background:Incoming medical alarm is a common routine for emergency nurses. Working in these situations may represent a major burden on the individual nurse. Purpose: To investigate emergency room nurses' experiences in receiving medical alerts focused on education, safety, security, skills and experience, and andherence to guidelines. The purpose was also to investigate whether there were any differences in action between the emergency room nurses who had worked longer or shorter period than two years with this.Method:The design was quantitative, comparative and descriptive. Surveys were distributed to 30 nurses who worked in the emergency room at a Swedish hospital.

 The purpose of this study was to study how surgical nurses experiences their work order in the operating room (OR), and how they experience their psychosocial work environment and work organization in terms of hierarchical structures..

ABSTRACT The aim of this thesis is to illustrate how surgical operation theatre nurses perceive debriefing within emergency health care. The study has a qualitative design with semi structured interviews that have been performed with seven Operating room nurses working in emergency health care. The strategic selection consists of professional operation theatre nurses working in emergency care at Uppsala University Hospital. The main goal of this thesis is to increase the understanding of debriefing and to highlight the need of debriefing after difficult or unexpected events in the emergency health care profession.The interviewed nurses perceive debriefing as an important way to develop the day to day work, but also as a way to unburden the staff at the time of bigger traumas. Even though the effect of debriefing is not univocally positive in the literature, the staff perceives that it reduces different kinds of stress.

Background:In Sweden there are several thousand surgical procedures performed every day. The treatment is expected to be efficient, profitable and safe. Despite that, complications occur in 3-16 % of the surgical procedures. To prevent this, WHO has developed a surgical safety checklist containing safety issues to give the surgery team an opportunity to a last control that everything has been properly done. The profession of the surgical nurse focuses mainly on patient safety especially regarding hygiene and sterility.Aim: The aim of the study was to investigate and describe the perceptions of the perioperative nurses regarding WHO: s surgical safety checklist.Method:To test the suitability of the method a pilot study was performed where tree Operating room nurses were interviewed and the data was analyzed using qualitative content analysis.Results: Four categories emerged; Increased patient safety, enhanced team spirit, good planning, stronger professional role.Discussion: The result from the study showed positive perceptions regarding the surgical safety checklist, a fact known from earlier research.Conclusion: The results of the pilot study showed that surgical nurses had good support in their work when the surgical safety checklist was used..

Aim: The aim of this study was to describe the nurse?s work at an emergency department trough a perspective of caring.Method: A literature review has been made of twelve studies published between the years of 2002 ? 2012. The focus of all the studies was on Swedish emergency departments.  Results: The researchers found four themes that they choose to use as a way of describing the nurses work in the emergency room as detailed as possible. These themes were: ?The emergency room?, ?the nurse?s job assignments at an emergency department?, ?the patient?s experiences? and ?lifeworld and communication?.

Background: Surgical complications has been the main cause of medical injuries and deaths worldwide. In 2008 WHO developed the checklist for safe surgery to reduce the number of surgical complications. The objective of the checklist is to strengthen already established safety routines and contribute to better cooperation and communication. Research shows that compliance to the checklist is deficient, which can affect patient safety.Aim: The aim was to study the extent to which theatre nurses participate in the use of the checklist.Method: Observational study was conducted with a descriptive design and quantitative approach. 24 observations were carried out with aid of an observation protocol of two surgical units at a hospital in central Sweden.Result: The results showed that Timeout initiated widely but compliance to all items was considerably lower.

The perioperative nurse's primary responsibility is to care for the patient during the operation?s three phases; before, during and after. The communication between colleagues in the surgical department is increasing opportunities for safe care for the patient and a good dialogue with the patient can alleviate the concerns facing the unknown environment such as an operating theater. The pilot study was to investigate the surgical nurses' perceptions of conversations with the patient one year after graduation. To answer the pilot study's aim a qualitative interview study was chosen with a phenomenographic approach.

Background: Surgical complications has been the main cause of medical injuries and deaths worldwide. In 2008 WHO developed the checklist for safe surgery to reduce the number of surgical complications. The objective of the checklist is to strengthen already established safety routines and contribute to better cooperation and communication. Research shows that compliance to the checklist is deficient, which can affect patient safety.Aim: The aim was to study the extent to which theatre nurses participate in the use of the checklist.Method: Observational study was conducted with a descriptive design and quantitative approach. 24 observations were carried out with aid of an observation protocol of two surgical units at a hospital in central Sweden.Result: The results showed that Timeout initiated widely but compliance to all items was considerably lower.

The aim of this project was to create an interior design for a children?s hospital patient room with the concept to adapt the room for the wide target group from 0-18 years of age. The analysis in the project is based on the hospital ward 322 at Drottning Silvias Children?s and Youth Hospital in Gothenburg. It?s an oncology ward where the children are very sensitive for infections and therefore need to be isolated in their rooms for 3-4 weeks.The main goal for the project was to create a room that works as a template and gives the people who lives in it the opportunity to create thier own room based on the personal things they bring into it, and how they decide to furnish and use the room.The result of the project is a template room with fixed furniture that can be transformed due to screens in the room.

Background: Postoperative infections are a serious patient safety problem and affects about 3 % of all patients undergoing surgery. The consequences are prolonged hospital stays, high social costs, increased use of antibiotics and impaired quality of life for the patient. It has been shown that postoperative infections may be caused by contamination already in the operating room. Today we know that there is growth of microorganisms on the instrument table´s top, but there is a research gap about the instrument table's edges.Aim: To examine if the sterile drape on the instrument table´s edges are sterile after finished surgery.Method: Contact plates are printed on strategically selected areas on the sterile drapes top and edges. In the pilot study, a total of 51 cultures were taken at the end of three operations which lasted over three hours.Results: Growth on the top surface and the edges of the sterile drape were detected.