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1. Infection Control

On any unit of a hospital, it is important to focus on ways to prevent infection in patients, not just the operating room. Therefore, as a nurse, I will take initiative to control infection rates in patients on the unit by recognizing my own hygiene habits (such as handwashing before entering the room), and recommend that others on the unit do the same if  I notice it not being done.

2. Patient advocacy

As a nurse, I will be sure to advocate for my patients as much as possible. In the hospital is when people are the most vulnerable, so making sure that they are receiving the best treatment is of high priority to me. Since I want to work in pediatrics or neonatal nursing, it is especially important to advocate for the children in the hospitals as well!

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1. Infection Control

Surgical site infection is a major cause of mortality in the perioperative time period (Lynch et al., 2009). Therefore, infection control is a necessary part of the field of surgery. As we have learned in school, an infection occurs when a germ enters the body, multiplies, and causes the body to react (CDC, 2016). Since the skin is the body's first line of defense against germs, the breaking of skin during surgery makes the patient particularly susceptible to infection.

2. Patient advocacy

Patient advocacy involves the nurse speaking up for what is best for the patient, and this is especially needed during surgery since the patients are under anesthesia and cannot advocate for themselves (Cherry & Jacob, 2019).

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Being one of the only people that is not sterile, the nurse may be doing multiple tasks at once, so he or she may not be able to keep track of everyone that is coming in and out of the OR.

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Sometimes the sterile trays are missing something that the surgeon needs, so foot traffic is absolutely necessary in order to get the correct tool to complete the surgery.

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In the operating room, there are many different doors - the main doors where the hospital bed fits through, a side door by the sinks for the surgeon to perform hand-washing, and a door that leads to a sub-sterile room.

Many times, the people come in and out of the operating room through the door by the sinks, which is not considered sterile at all. Therefore, making a point to go through the door through the sub-sterile to get out of the OR can help decrease the amount of bacteria-filled airflow coming into the room during surgeries.

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Another way is by planning lunch and other breaks during the day around the surgeries as much as possible so they are not causing more foot traffic during the operations.

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A way the nurse could help improve this issue is by bringing in extra supplies that are usually used for the specific surgery that is being performed, so that if the object is dropped or if more is needed, the nurse would not have to create more foot traffic to go to the storage room.

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The nurse in the operating room is the main person that is going in and out of the room during surgery, so the nurse changing his or her habits is necessary for this issue of foot traffic to be improved.

Also, informing the other people that may be in the room for the day, such as surgical representatives and medical or nursing students, of the importance of maintaining a sterile environment as much as possible would be important for the nurse to communicate.

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Besides the anesthesiologist, the circulating nurse is the only person in the room that is not sterile.

Therefore, they are the ones that are the runners for the surgeon and surgical scrub technician whenever they need something during surgery. Moreover, this could mean they need to go to the store room or elsewhere outside of the operating room during surgery for said items, causing more foot traffic.

I have personally seen the nurse in the OR go in and out of the room during surgery up to 15 times to either get something or to be relieved for lunch or break time by another nurse, thus exacerbating the issue of too much foot traffic during surgery.

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3. More costs associated with these surgical infections:

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3. More costs associated with these surgical infections:

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Surgical site infections account for an excess of between $400 to up to $30,000 per infection. This is due to longer hospital stays, more care needed, and another surgery may be needed depending on the severity (Urban, 2006).

Therefore, OR foot traffic is cost ineffective due to the increase in hospital bills caused by the need to treat the infection.

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2. More people being in the room, leading to longer surgery time:

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2. More people being in the room, leading to longer surgery time:

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It has been found that there is a significant correlation between the number of people in an operating room and the length of time it takes to complete a surgery, with up to 34 minutes added for each additional person in the room (Healey et al., 2015).

Therefore, this leads to an increase of time that a patient has an open wound, making them more susceptible to infection.

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1. More bacteria entering the sterile field:

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1. More bacteria entering the sterile field:

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Andersson et al. (2012) found that in 51 out of 91 air samples taken from operating rooms, there were higher levels of colony forming units (CFU) than the recommended 10 CFU/m^3.

This data correlated with higher percentages of foot traffic in the operating room during surgery, showing that foot traffic negatively impacts the amount of bacteria in the OR (Andersson et al., 2012).

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Operating room foot traffic can lead to:

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Any patient that is undergoing a procedure can be affected by the foot traffic in the operating room.

These patients can be affected because of the increased risk of infection due to the skin barrier being broken during surgery.

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Operating room foot traffic is the coming in and out of operating rooms by nurses and other surgical staff members during a surgery. It has been found that the amount of times the door was opened in one-third of surgical cases could cause the positive pressure system of the room to be rendered useless, breaking sterility (Mears, Blanding, & Belkoff, 2015).