The Status of Use of Surgical Safety Check List and Opinions of Nurses

Abstract

Objective: To determine “the status of use of surgical safety check list SSCL and opinions of nurses”. Surgical safety check list that is developed by World Health Organization helps the surgical team to decrease the number of patient safety related adverse incidents. Methods: The study was performed at a private university hospital between August-September 2013 and included all intensive care units, clinics, and operating rooms where adult patients who underwent surgical procedure received care. The design of the first part of the research was retrospective and 383 patient files were examined for SSCL. The second part was cross sectional and descriptive and 105 69% nurses participated in the study. Results: Patient files were examined and it was found that 20.1% of the nurses completely filled all of the corresponding parts in the SSCL; while the ratios were 2.3% and 42.0% in surgical doctors and anesthetists, respectively. Most of the nurses 92.4% used SSCL, and according to 78.1% of the nurses, SSCL was effective in the prevention of medical errors. Conclusions: Although nurses used the surgical safety check list effectively, it was determined that there were problems in the application of surgical safety check list; hence, development of programs to increase the effective use of surgical safety check list was suggested