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..

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Introduction. Infection Prevention is one of the Surgical nurses' main responsibilities. One of the steps which patients undergo in this purpose before surgery is the preoperative skin desinfektion. Background. The patient washes the day before surgery with Descutan cutaneous sponge 4 %, a sponge containing chlorhexidine.

Introduction: Balance between the essential nutritive substances is important for aperson to maintain health. The surgical patient can be stricken with conditions, whichhave a negative impact on this balance and can lead to malnutrition. Working as a nurseit is important to identify patients that are malnourished or is in the risk zone ofmalnourishment since 30 % of all patients in hospitals are malnourished.Aim: The aim of this study was to examine the compliance to the guidelines fornutritional assessment and parenteral nutrition on a surgical ward. Also whether thenutritional treatment/-support was reported to the next caregivers if the patient wasmalnourished or was in the risk zone of malnourishment at the time of discharge.Method: 80 patients enrolled on the ward in the beginning of year 2011 were included.Audit of patient records was made according to the hospital guidelines for nutrition andparenteral nutrition and followed a study specific protocol.Results: The examination of the case records showed that the guidelines for nutritionwere partly complied with. Nutritional treatment/-support was reported to the nextcaregivers when needed.

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. .

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: 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.

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: Miscarriage is one of the most common complications connected to pregnancy, every fourth woman undergoes a miscarriage during her lifetime. There is often no medical explanation why miscarriage happens, although the risk may increase due to certain factors in lifestyle or diseases. During incomplete miscarriages medical or surgical treatment is needed.Women are treated at surgical or gynecological departments and the period of treatment is often very brief, on some occasions not even a day. Therefore, the nurse faces a great challenge in meeting the women?s needs during the period of treatment.Aim: The aim of the study is to illuminate womens experiences of miscarriage and the treatment they experienced.Methods: A systematic literary study containing 13 articles.Results: Miscarriage is an individual experience and many women are affected emotionally and have many strong feelings afterwards.