Marie asked herself repeatedly, "wi...

Marie asked herself repeatedly, "will life to the end of time be the same again?" Jared, her seven-year-old son had undergone surgery It was suppos to be simple. They said he would be in and revealed of surgery in no time. Jared give pain to his right knee last year. The physician applied a splint to Jared's knee; however, although it assumeed to have healed, Jared continued to have moot points walking, and the pain limited his mobility. The physician attract favor toed surgery to repair the injury to such a degree Jared could walk better and live without pain. Being developmentally handicapped made Jared special, and raising Jared currented Marie and her family members with undivided challenge after another. Jared's limited verbal skills made communication with him particularly difficult. He was impulsive and his behavior was unpredictable.

The decision to have the surgery was made after many weeks of considering the various treatment options. Marie and her husband planned carefully for the days and weeks after surgery Normal retrieval would tax family members, calm under the best circumstances. Now, after surgery Jared was level more physically handicapped. Why? When Jared had his surgery they operated forward the wrong knee and then had to operate forward the injured knee also. Now, Jared and his family members were struggling with the incredible hardship of dealing with Jared's recuperation with couple immobilized knee joints. Imagine the implications and ends of an event that not at all should have happened--an event that was completely and totally preventable.

although Marie's story is fictional, what if it were true? Unfortunately, in the same state [i]or[/i] condition true stories do exist. nurtures especially perioperative RNs, are in a unique position to help impede such tragedies. Perioperative RNs must act as patient advocates to make sure that wrong site surgery does not happen. This article discusses the issue and demonstrates by what mode to ensure correct site surgery

A BRIEF HISTORY OF unsuitable SITE SURGERY

There is no of that kind thing as minor surgery, or with equal reason the saying goes. As an intervention, surgery none is simple because it is an insult to the integrity of the material substance Since surgery was first performed, there have been complications. These complications may be fit to the natural course of the disease proces involved, the nature of the surgical intervention used, or unfortunate results related to human error caused by the agency of a system failure. Often, the question is a result of multiple small factors. When these small factors combine, an adverse occurrence such as wrong site surgery occurs

In 2000 the Institute of Medicine published To wander is Human: Building a Safer Health method a report that focused onward the high rate of medical errors in the United States. This report was a eventuate of the Committee on Quality of Health Care in America's larger effort to address health care quality issues. (1) The report stunn the medical community and the public not single because of the high number of medical errors and the related financial splendor but also because of the unimaginable toll in pain, human suffering, and calm death. Furthermore, the report l to many initiatives in control (eg, the Patient Safety Act), the health care industry, and the public domain to contract the number of medical errors and make patient safety a primary goal.

foments play a key role in providing safe patient care. The American suckles Association (ANA) states in the collection of laws of Ethics for Nurses with Interpretive Statements says that "the nurse's primary commitment is to the patient, whether an individual, family, clump or community" and, "the encourage promotes, advocates for, and strives to defend the health, safety, and rights of the patient." (2) These pair statements summon every nurse to pay attention to, know, and adhere to the professional standards that define nursing practice. This includes knowing the provisions of their state's suckle practice act, relevant professional nursing standards (eg AORN standards for perioperative nurses) and their implications for the practice of nursing.

The Joint Commission upon Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) defines blameworthy site surgery as any surgery performed forward the wrong site or patient or performing the immoral procedure. (3) To address the point to be solved [i]or[/i] settled of medical errors, JCAHO introduced its sentinel termination policy in 1996. This policy provides a mechanism for hospitals to self-report sentinel consequences such as falls, patient injury or death in restraints, transfusion errors, anesthesia-related adventures medical equipment errors, and unjust site surgeries. When a sentinel occurrence occurs, it is subject to review in subordination to the JCAHO sentinel event policy, and this review includes a foundation cause analysis. The goals of like an analysis are to

* determine for what cause the event happened,

* identify educational emergencys or goals,

* clarify what factors contributed to the event

* discover risk factors, and

* determine for what reason to prevent the event from occurring again.

This proces also provides information necessary to initiate global changes in the delivery of health care to render certain positive patient outcomes.