Authors (including presenting author) :
Cheung YP(1), Li MP(1)
Affiliation :
(1) Operation Theatre and Theatre Service Centre, Princess Margaret Hospital
Introduction :
Sharp injury is important to staff working in operating room (OR) where
numerous of different sharps were being used. There are 14 sharps injury
in the OR in 2020, 79% occurred in the nurses with less than 3 years’
experience. The Behaviour Based Safety Observation (BBSO) report in 2020
showed there is lack of concern of staff safety and health in management
and more than 50% of staff disagree that safety rules and guidelines could
protect them from injury. The lack of trust among the junior staff towards
the management to ensure their safety discouraged the cultivation of
safety attitude and culture in the OR and thus manifested as clinical
outcome.
Objectives :
The objective of this study is to improve the safety culture in operation theatre through the participation of a structured 3 tiers CQI project in team approach.
Methodology :
This is a pre-post intervention qualitative and quantitative study. 18 OR nurses with less than 3 years OR experience are recruited by homogenous purposive sampling method. Safety Attitude Questionnaire in short form (SAQ) was used to evaluate the climate data with validity and continuity. The intervention “participation in CQI on safety sharps handling” included: (1) Two 1.5 hours training sessions to provide knowledge support: double gloving, using VAK approach with gaze following the transferal of sharps and emphasize the laterality of picking up sharps from the surgeon’s perspective e.g. 3/O vicryl on Dr. X left hand side; (2) Participants carry out their actual scrub role at work; (3)Two 30 minutes weekly reflective sessions
Result & Outcome :
The number of sharps injury decreased 21.42% in 2021. The compliance rate of double gloving reached 100%. The teamwork and safety climate in post SAQ score increased 13.78% (p<0.05), the standard deviation markedly dropped by 57.4%. All of the participants reported the VAK approach completed the close loop communication in the actual scrub role.
