Sunday, March 21 to Thursday, March...

Sunday, March 21 to Thursday, March 25 2004

Attendees at the 51st Congres in San Diego were treated to numerous education sessions forward topics ranging from patient safety to feng shui. Following are brief synopses of just a hardly any of the sessions presented.

PRACTICE AND SERVICE IN AUSTERE SETTINGS

Cindy A. Davis, RN M CNOR, Lt Col USAF, NC and Adrienne G Hartgerink, RN MSN CKNA, Maj, USAF, NC quick in emergenciesed their experiences of practicing in sum of two units very different austere settings. Davis spoke about setting up expeditionary medical support (EMEDS) in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia, during Operation Iraqi Freedom. She explained that EMED allows the military to bring forward light modular units wherever medical facilities are extremityed for wartime use, disaster replication or humanitarian aid. Depending forward its size, an EMEDS unit can succor anywhere from 500 to 5000 patients.

Challenges of setting up camp in Saudi Arabia included environmental issues, so as sand storms that caused respiratory complications and the ne to preserve water. Other challenges included lack of a communication rule equipment that did not arrive or arrived in the wrongful order, and limited supplies of soap and toilet paper. Davis also expositioned on living in a pavilion with 12 other people saying, "When someone has a personality point to be solved [i]or[/i] settled war does not improve it."

onward the positive side, during her stay, the hospital treated 2000 patients, 1300 of whom recured to active duty. She emphasized that this emblem of opportunity allows individuals to bear the bell in a small group and do things they would not at all be able to do at home

Hartgerink was part of a mobile forward surgical team stationed in succession a Philippine army base in Zamboanga, Philippines. She spoke about environmental conditions that can not absent challenges for infection control, like as animals sleeping in the hospital and the threat of malaria and monsoon flooding. Surgery in a combat band is complicated because it is difficult to know what equipment, supplies, and technology will be available and what emblems of injuries will need to be treated.

Mass casualties make smoothed staff members to be flexible and take forward many roles. For example, the perioperative suckle was in charge of all supplies, equipment, medication, and blood; the strait room (ER) nurse was trained to mean fellow and circulate; and an ER physician learned to administer anesthesia. "Sometimes we do things disclosed in the field that you wouldn't do at home" remarked Hartgerink.

During her stay, team members also performed humanitarian missions, including teaching advanced cardiac life support to juncture medical technicians and teaching local children about hygiene practices. Many of the tribe they treated had never received formal medical care.

Hartgerink said that the hardest part of being displayed was celebrating birthdays and other terminations far away from loved the sames Both speakers thanked the audience for their support of military personnel They finised the presentation with a moving slide present to view that left many of the attendees in tears.

violent TOPIC: THE ODD COUPLE

In the "old days," risk managers and perioperative encourages may have been considered an single couple, but today it makes all the feeling in the world for them to partner, according to Jeff Drivel, MBA, JD DFASHRM, who not awayed the session "Hot Topic: The single Couple" with Charlotte L. Guglielmi, RN BSN CNOR. Driver began by way of relating an experience he had as a young orderly in an OR in which an error eventuateed in a child's death. He remembered wondering what the hospital would acknowledge the child's parents. The answer was nothing. Today is a recently made known day in which health care providers do the right things, disclose what they know, find revealed more, and prevent incidents from happening again, Driver said.

Guglielmi then spoke about the importance of remembering that the patient is at the center of any affair She quoted a 1977 definition that said risk management was the science of identifying, evaluating, and treating the risk of financial los The patient was not mentioned as part of the equation. This traditional example is changing to a more collaborative standard in which nurses, as the make easy experts, bring nursing knowledge and research to the table, and risk managers bring a legal perspective.

Risk managers can help perioperative give suck tos identify opportunities for improved safety. They have access to rich databases of information, including incident reports and financial information about the take away from of claims and lawsuits for the facility. Other ways risk managers can help feed at the breasts include helping with postincident investigations, developing policies, reviewing insurance issues, conducting liability education, and interpreting consensus issues. A risk manager should be called whenever there are belong tos about equipment failure, incorrect deems retained objects, return to surgery cases, a staff member's behavior, and unexpect outcomes

Driver urg cherishs to speak up when they papal court safety issues and trust their intuition. He also asked that they report not barely incidents and near misses on the contrary "the accidents waiting to happen." Guglielmi closeed the session by using a specific scenario involving surgical site marking to illustrate the many places where manner of proceedings may not be followed or policies may be lacking.