Demystifying the OR for Baccalaureate Nursing Students

The Effect of an Undergraduate Perioperative Nursing Course on Safety Knowledge

Despite national initiatives and ongoing efforts, keeping patients safe remains a challenge. Education is the key to preparing health care professionals to be able to prevent errors and provide safe patient care. In the past three decades, perioperative courses have been removed from nearly every nursing program in the United States, thereby eliminating the chance for students to learn nursing skills and concepts related to safety in the perioperative environment. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of a perioperative nursing course on junior baccalaureate nursing students' safety knowledge by testing students before and after they completed the course. Safety knowledge increased among the 44 student participants. Nursing program faculty members are encouraged to explore teaching opportunities beyond the traditional nursing educational model and include perioperative courses as part of the baccalaureate nursing curriculum to enhance patient safety.

The Operating Room Experiences of Nursing Students: A Focus Group Study

PURPOSE

The purpose of this study was to evaluate operating room (OR) experiences of student nurses.

DESIGN

The focus group interview from qualitative research methods was used.

METHODS

This study was carried out between February and March 2011 in an OR practice at a university school of nursing. The grounded theory method was used to collect and analyze semistructured interview. Interviews were held with a total of 26 students in three focus group interviews. Each interview was tape recorded and was supported by taking notes. The audiotapes were listened and relistened by the researchers and transcribed.

FINDINGS

Four themes were determined as a result of this study. These are information, determination of career preference, period of internship and/or rotation, and fear and/or anxiety.

CONCLUSIONS

The students stated that the period of OR practice was insufficient, the opportunities for being able to implement were limited, they mostly observed, and they experienced feelings of being alone and fear in the OR. Despite all of these, the students stated that the OR practice provided a major contribution to their education and was effective in the determination of their career preferences after graduation.

[Analysis of teaching of the discipline Nursing in Surgical Center in schools of São Paulo]

The study aimed to characterize the teaching of Nursing in Surgical Center in relation to work load, content and specific curriculum component; and to identify the perspectives and experiences of teachers in teaching this content. This is a descriptive study of quantitative and qualitative approach, that used a semi structured instrument for data collection, with questions related to teaching discipline, sent by email to the coordinators of the courses of Bachelor of Nursing from 219 schools in the state of São Paulo, registered in the website of the Brazilian Ministry of Education. Of the 52 respondents, 90.4% were from private schools, mostly located in the interior of the state (71.1%). From the total of courses, 53.8% ministered the content surgical center within another discipline. The median of content hours was of 64h (40-300h). The respondents commented on the extensive content for a small work load, both practical and theoretical, and its importance for the formation of the generalist nurse.

[Education in operating room nursing: transformation of the discipline at University of São Paulo School of Nursing (Brazil)]

The objectives of this paper are to present a summary of the evolution of the content of perioperative nursing at the University of São Paulo School of Nursing (EEUSP) and reflect on the National Curriculum Directives (NCD) for the nursing course. The study was developed from a brief history of the practice of perioperative nursing and the inclusion of this topic in the nursing curriculum at EEUSP. The National Curriculum Directives are important because they permit undergraduate schools to determine the amount of teaching time for each course that will comprise their curriculum, but the competencies and skills proposed are nonspecific. We believe that the general nurse should have theoretical and practical learning opportunities to work in every area and level of healthcare.