The impact of surgical safety checklists on theatre departments: a critical review of the literature

Content validity of a Safe Nursing Care Checklist for a neonatal unit

BACKGROUND

Nursing checklists have been shown to improve communication, reduce the occurrence of adverse events, and promote safe, quality care in different care settings. However, to date, there is no validated patient care safety checklist for nurses caring for infants in Neonatal Intensive Care Units (NICU).

AIM

To describe development and content validation of the "Safe Nursing Care Checklist for Infants Hospitalized in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit".

STUDY DESIGN

Online Survey.

METHODS

Based upon an integrative literature review, we developed a checklist focused on safe nursing care for infants in the NICU. Nursing experts participated in three rounds of a content validation process where they rated the items online. An agreement level ≥0.90 was required for inclusion in the checklist. Forty- three expert nurses with experience working in the NICU and who were certified in neonatal nursing or had a master's or doctoratal degree in child health provided content validation of the patient care checklist.

RESULTS

The final checklist contained 45 items with content validation index scores greater than 90%. The instrument was structured into six dimensions including patient identification, effective communication, medication safety, infection prevention, fall prevention, and pressure injuries/skin injuries prevention.

CONCLUSION

Content validity was established for the "Safe Nursing Care Checklist for Infants Hospitalized in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit" which can identify strengths and weaknesses in safe nursing care for infants in the NICU as well as direct educational interventions to promote nursing care based on scientific evidence.

RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE

This checklist can potentially be used by bedside nurses to promote provision of safe care to infants in the NICU and to guide corrective strategies and encourage evidence-based decision-making. Validation in the clinical setting is needed.

Surgical wound assessment tool: Construct validity and inter-rater reliability of a tool designed for nurses

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES

To validate construct validity and inter-rater reliability of a surgical wound assessment tool.

BACKGROUND

Wound assessment is central to appropriate wound management. However, limited standard surgical wound assessment tools are available to assist nurses in assessing and recording progress in the healing of surgical wounds.

DESIGN

A prospective observational study was utilised to test the validity and reliability. The Strengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology (STROBE) guideline was used.

METHODS

Convenience sampling was used to recruit 260 patients who underwent elective or emergency surgery at a hospital in Vietnam. Exploratory factor analysis was used to examine the construct validity of the surgical wound assessment tool. Inter-rater reliability was calculated using the intraclass correlation coefficient and Cohen's kappa to determine reliability of the overall scale and identified items.

RESULTS

The results of the exploratory factor analysis supported a three-component structure of the surgical wound assessment tool. The intraclass correlation coefficient value of the overall scale was 0.79 (95% CI 0.67-0.89), p < .001, confirming excellent inter-rater reliability. Cohen's kappa value ranged from 0.5 to 1, demonstrating moderate to almost perfect level of agreement for individual items, except for one item on pain.

CONCLUSION

The surgical wound assessment tool was deemed to be acceptable, valid and reliable for monitoring the status of surgical wound healing. However, further modification and testing are needed to strengthen the tool and to determine the applicability of the tool in other populations.

RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE

The application of the SWAT would improve the assessment of surgical wounds in daily nursing practice which will promote improved postoperative wound management. It is an easy and practical tool for enhancing inter-disciplinary communication and care outcomes for all patients with surgical wounds.

Safe surgeries: elaboration and validation of a checklist for outpatient surgical procedures

PURPOSE

To prepare and validate the content of a checklist in order to assure the safety for outpatient surgical procedures.

METHOD

Methodological research, performed between May and December 2018, as per three stages: 1) preparation of the checklist; 2) validation of content by five judges; and 3) preliminary testing of the instrument. The concord, among the judges, was measured by the Content Validity Index and the values over 0.9 were considered as being satisfactory.

RESULTS

Initially the instrument was prepared having 58 items, considering the heading and six topics. In the first round, two topics and 27 items had an index below 0.9. After reformulations, in the second round, only two items had values below 0.9 and, in the third, all items reached an index of 1.0. Along the preliminary testing, modifications were realized. The final version it has 43 items, distributed as per five topics.

CONCLUSION

The "Checklist for Safe Surgery regarding Ambulatory Surgical Procedures" was prepared and its contents were validated.

Sign in, time out, sign out checklist-changing practice through interdepartmental teamwork to improve safety at caesarean section

Three similar clinical incidences over a three-month period highlighted an issue with the readiness and availability of neonatal resuscitation personnel and equipment at the time of caesarean section (CS). This identified a potential risk to the wellbeing of the mother and baby that had to be addressed. A joint venture was undertaken with the maternity and theatre directorates. A maternity-specific checklist in use in the UK maternity services was sourced, adapted and implemented. No further incidents have been reported since with resulting overall enhanced safety of pregnant women and newborn babies in the unit.

Who's who? Championing the '#TheatreCapChallenge'

Our Developing Perioperative Practice service improvement project, sponsored by the Royal Bournemouth Hospital, addressed whether the remarkably simple idea of putting names and roles on hats in theatre would improve communication and patient care. We were inspired by our own experiences as a group of student Operating Department Practitioners: unfamiliarity with members of the team, wanting to feel included in the work but not out of our depth, and by social media campaigns such as the '#TheatreCapChallenge' and '#hellomynameis', aiming to humanise care and increase patient safety. Researching, clinically trialling and presenting this project gave us a systematic approach to improving the quality of care within the theatre environment.

Surgical safety checklist: benefits, facilitators, and barriers in the nurses' perspective

OBJECTIVE

To identify the benefits, facilitators and barriers in the implementation of the surgical safety checklist, according to the reports of nurses working in the hospital surgical center.

METHOD

Cross-sectional study with 91 nurses in 25 hospitals in two municipalities of Paraná. Between the years 2015 and 2016, two structured instruments were used to collect data. For the analysis, Fisher's exact or Chi-Square test was used.

RESULTS

The implementation of the checklist brought benefits to the patient, surgical team and hospitals. Regarding the facilitators, the results presented a statistically significant difference between the groups in the items offering education (p=0.006) and acceptance by surgeons (p=0.029). In the barriers, the lack of administrative (p=0.006) and management (p=0.041) support, absence of the patient safety nucleus (p=0.005), abruptly introduced list (p=0.001) and absence of education (p<0.001).

CONCLUSION

The evidence generated allowed to identify the benefits, facilitators and barriers in the implementation of the checklist in the national context.

Implementation process of the Surgical Safety Checklist: integrative review

Objective:

to analyze the evidence available in the literature on the process of implementing the Surgical Safety Checklist, proposed by the World Health Organization, in the practice of health services.

Method:

integrative review, the search for primary studies was performed in three relevant databases in the health area, and the sample consisted of 27 studies, which were grouped into three categories.

Results:

the synthesis of the evidence indicated the different strategies that can be adopted in the implementation process (introduction and optimization) of the Surgical Safety Checklist, and the facilitators and barriers that determine the success in using this tool.

Conclusion:

in health services, implementing the checklist is a complex and challenging process that requires effective leadership, clear delegation of responsibilities from each professional, collaboration between team members, and institutional support. The synthesis of the generated knowledge can assist nurses in decision making, especially in identifying strategies for the effective implementation of the Surgical Safety Checklist, since nursing has the potential to be a protagonist in the planning and implementation of best practices for patient safety.

Use of the WHO surgical safety checklist in low and middle income countries: A review of the literature

A wealth of research now exists surrounding use of the WHO surgical safety checklist. This paper reviews the literature regarding checklist use in developing countries. Results identify a lack of available literature specific to developing countries despite this potentially being where the greatest impact could be observed. Unique challenges of checklist use are discussed and opportunities for future research focusing on use of the checklist in developing countries suggested.

Comparação das taxas de infecção cirúrgica após implantação do checklist de segurança

Resumo Objetivo Comparar taxas de infecção de sítio cirúrgico em cirurgia limpa antes e após implantação do checklist proposto pela Organização Mundial de Saúde. Métodos Estudo observacional, descritivo, retrospectivo do tipo correlacional, realizado em um hospital geral. Amostra constituída por 15.319 registros de cirurgias limpas das especialidades traumato-ortopedia, cardiovascular, plástica, geral e urologia monitoradas pelo Serviço de Controle de Infecção Hospitalar. Antes da implantação do checklist foram avaliados 5.481 registros e após 9.838. Análise realizada com Software SPSS 22.0 e aplicação do teste qui-quadrado de Pearson, considerando-se significativo p<0,05. Resultados A taxa geral de infecção em cirurgia limpa foi 4.17% no período pré-implantação do checklist e 1.10% pós (p<0.05), com redução estatisticamente significativa nas cirurgias de coluna, aneurisma e by-pass, abdominoplastia, mamoplastia, herniorrafia e prostatectomia. Conclusão Observou-se redução significativa da taxa de infecção de sítio cirúrgico nas cirurgias limpas quando comparados os períodos pré e pós-implantação do checklist proposto pela Organização Mundial de Saúde.