Patient safety in surgical nursing: A literature review

Abstract

Patient safety in perioperative nursing has remained a significant concern of healthcare organizations and people seeking to get healthcare and with the significant rise in the number of disabilities and death associated with surgery, there have been an ever increasing need to re-evaluate and reform the delivery of healthcare in surgical nursing. This study aimed to search the possible nursing interventions that could enhance patient safety in surgical nursing. The purpose was to provide nursing staff and educational institutions with knowledge of patient safety in surgical nursing to increase patient safety throughout the different surgical phases. The research was done as a literature review and information was gathered from 3 Databases CINAHL, Google scholar and PubMed. PICOS criteria was used to determine the inclusion and exclusion of the selected articles. Six articles were used in this review. The articles were analyzed following a qualitative content analysis model and the extracted data were grouped to generate themes and subthemes. The study discovered that patient safety driven organizational culture, effective leadership, and accessibility to continued learning, as well as identifying causes of errors and providing adequate information were nursing interventions under organizational design; social competences of nurses included collaborative teamwork, open, clear, and effective communication, and intrapersonal skills; establishing safe surgical working environment and encouraging open and transparent reporting system were patient safety cultures. To ensure patient safety throughout the whole stages of perioperative nursing, it is in the responsibilities of nurses and healthcare professionals to report errors when they occur, learn, and develop from them. Although, organizations must understand that errors are not caused by individuals rather it reflects the institutional standards about patient safety culture.