Opinions of Operating Room Nurses Regarding Patient and Staff Safety in Operating Room

Objectives: Patient and staff safety is a crucial issue for the health agenda of all countries. Patient safety involves promoting the measures which ensure that mistakes are noted, reported and corrected before they affect patients and health workers. This descriptive study was conducted to determine the opinions of operating room nurses regarding patient and staff safety, as well as the factors that affect these opinions. Methods: This descriptive study was conducted in 2010 in the operating rooms of nine quality-certified public hospitals in Ankara. This study was applied to 100 operating room nurses. Data was collected through questionnaires. Results: Operating room nurses report that the operating room engenders many risks towards patient and staff safety. The study shows that the three most frequent factors which threaten patient safety are: risk of infection (50%), problems with the transport of patients (50%), and wrong-patient/wrong-side/wrong-operation (35%). This study also revealed that the threats to staff safety are: sharp and penetrating injuries (44%), exposure to diseases that spread through contact with blood, body fluid, or respiration (41%). Conclusion: Nurses reported a multitude of risks that affect patient and staff safety in the operating room. The most important of these are risk of infection and sharp, penetrating injuries. Key words: Operating room, patient and staff safety, nursing