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..

Cochlear implant has become a common treatment for people with severe hearing loss. As the field of cochlear implants is developing rapidly a larger group of patients will be implanted. Therefore, it can be of interest to identify which complications are most frequently occurring. Objective: The aim of this study is to identify and present the most common complications in cochlear implant treatment and to identify Surgical issues that have to be addressed during implantation. Method: A review of retrospective case studies regarding complications has been made.

The aim was to describe the experiences of couples where the male partner had undergone radical prostatectomy due to prostate cancer. Furthermore, the study explored how the operation had affected their sexual life, whether the couples had received enough post surgical support and information concerning these issues, and to describe the kind of support and information these couples desired. Twenty men and ten partners participated. All the men experienced a varying degree of post surgical erectile dysfunction and only five men had received support concerning their sexual life. Eleven men desired professional visiting support activities.

The aim of this study was to investigate the intraoperative surgical stress response in dogs undergoing ovariohysterectomy and to compare acepromazine and medetomidine as premedications. 15 dogs diagnosed with pyometra were used in this study. Blood pressure and heart rate were used as parameters to measure surgical stress response. The surgery was divided into four phases. Phase 0 was the period 10 minutes before the skin incision, phase 1 was skin incision and opening of abdomen, phase 2 was manipulation of uterine horns, ligation and transection of mesovarium and phase 3 was ligation of cervix, removal of organs and closing the abdomen. The results showed that phase 2 was the most intense phase of surgical stress, regardless of which premedication the dogs received. When acepromazine and medetomidine were compared the results showed that within phase 3, all dogs that were given medetomidine had higher blood pressure compared to dogs that were given acepromazine. The dogs that were given acepromazine had higher heart rate than the dogs that were given medetomidine in phase 0, phase 2 and phase 3. .

Introduction: On the surgical wards in most hospitals in Sweden patients with different surgical needs are cared for. Patients with gastrointestinal conditions are, for example, nurtured alongside patients with urological disorders or patients in need of observation for head trauma. When the nurse, in addition to these patients, have to care for patients with palliative care needs can be perceived as problematic for nurse and patient alike.Purpose: The purpose of this study is to explore nurses' perceptions of care for patients with palliative care needs on an acute surgical ward, based on a person-centered perspective.Method: A focus group interview was conducted with the strategic selection of nurses from two acute surgical wards in a county hospital in western Sweden. The data from the interview were analyzed with qualitative directed, deductive content analysis with person-centered care as a theoretical framework. The theoretical background shows that person-centered care includes partnership, participation and structured documentation.Results: The results of this study show that even a fourth category, organization, emerged and needed to be reported.

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.

Postoperative site infections are the second most common health care associated infection in Sweden. Surgical procedures can lead to postoperative site infection causing great suffer for the patient and an extended care time with an increased cost as a result. In preparation for surgery, it is important that the skin is well prepared with antiseptics to decrease the risk of postoperative site infection. The purpose with this study was to shed light upon the skin preparation before surgery and its significance to postoperative site infection. Ten scientific articles have been scrutinized and compiled and two themes have been identified ? the preoperative and the intraoperative skin preparation.

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.

ABSTRACTBackground: On behalf of the Orthopedic clinic, Västerås, a study has been conducted with focus on comparing the results after conservative and surgical treatment due to complete achillestendon rupture.Aim: To compare results when testing the active and passive range of motion, calf muscle endurance, estimation of pain related to the achillestendon and self-efficacy to be physically active for individuals who have undergone conservative or surgical treatment after complete achillestendon rupture.Method: 14 individuals afflicted by complete achillestendon rupture in 2010 were recruited as a purposive sample. Examination were conducted of: Ankle range of motion with a goniometer, calf muscle endurance through a toe-raise test, estimation of pain intensity related to the achillestendon by VAS and self-efficacy to be physically active through ?Exercise self-efficacy scale?. P-value and the median were calculated.Result: The results of ankle range of motion and calf muscle endurance were based on the difference between the injured and the healthy side. When testing active plantarflexion the conservative group had a median of 4 ? and the surgical group had a median of 10 ?.

BackgroundWorld Alliance for Patient Safety, launched by the WHO, has created a Surgical Safety Checklist. It was first published in 2008 and has been translated and modified in Sweden by Landstingens Ömsesidiga Försäkringsbolag, LÖF. The use of the WHO Surgical Safety Checklist has been shown to reduce the number of complications and deaths related to surgery.AimThe aim of this study is to describe the Theatre Nurse?s participation in in the use of a modified version of the WHO Surgical Safety Checklist intraoperatively in two Theatres in a hospital in the centre of Sweden.MethodThis study has a quantitative descriptive approach. A direct observational study was carried out in two Theatres and the participants were asked a few complementary questions after the observations.

In 2012, about 1.3 million boars were surgically castrated, most of them without anaesthesia. Castration is performed to avoid the occurrence of boar taint and aggressive and sexual behaviour. There is a growing concern about the welfare of the piglets and the Swedish Board of Agriculture is working to find efficient and functional alternatives to castration without anaesthesia. The aim of this study was to obtain an overall picture of the latest research about the alternatives to castration without anaesthesia, with focus on vaccination against boar taint, and how they affect the welfare of the pigs. The alternative methods that are available today are surgical castration with anaesthesia and/or analgesia, rearing entire males and vaccination against boar taint.

 Pain is common among women undergoing first trimester surgical abortions. At the postoperative unit, department of gynaecology, University Hospital, Uppsala, the goal is that 80 % of the women should rate pain as £ 3 on a numeric rating scale (NRS), when leaving the unit.The aim of the study was to investigate how rating was performed at the unit and to investigate patient?s perceptions of pain after having undergone first trimester surgical abortion.20 patients (74%) participated in the study. Ninety percent of the patients rated their pain as NRS £ 3 when leaving the unit. Seven patients (35 %) rated their pain as NRS > 3 directly after operation, and 2 (10 %) patients NRS > 3 when leaving the unit.

Introduction: To become acute ill and to be forced to seek treatment involves a difficult but also a vulnerable time for the individual. This acquires a good relationship between the nurse and the patient. At a surgical emergency ward patients with different diagnoses and trauma are treated. What distinguishes this specific type of ward is that care often occurs in a rapid rate and as a patient the environment may be experienced as stressed. The relationship with the nurse at the ward establishes a foundation for how the patient experiences the health care.

In Sweden surgical treatment of vocal fold lesions in children is fairly uncommon. At Falun hospital they have adapted a more generous attitude towards phonosurgery of children?s vocal folds. The purpose of the present study was to evaluate surgical treatment of organic vocal fold lesions in children and to assess the phonosurgical patient utility. The study was carried out at the Ear-, Nose- and Throat clinic, Falun hospital, Sweden.

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.