Surgical Time Out Report

For my Interventional clinical, I observed a right leg femoral artery stent placement. This involved the doctor making an incision into the leg to enter the femoral artery. The procedure was performed on an operating table, and a surgical technologist assisted the doctor. Collaborative care with radiology was incorporated in order for the doctor to ensure placement by ultrasound and X-ray. The doctor then would insert a balloon catheter to open a narrowed vessel (angioplasty) that supplies blood to the leg. The procedure was done in a Cath Lab and performed by a cardiac specialty doctor. The perioperative nurse was responsible for documenting, ensuring the patient was comfortable, and administrating medications. The client was medicated with
The time out occurs immediately before the procedure being performed. The Joint Commission established a Universal Protocol on time outs on July, 2004 and has been utilized in surgeries for the past fourteen years. I chose the topic surgical time out because they are essential to prevent wrong patient, site, and procedure. Surgical time out is an important aspect in perioperative nursing care because it can essentially help prevent errors that could be fatal to the patient. As a nurse, I want to be able to provide my patient with the best care possible, and safety is a major key factor for the
The preoperative nurse read off the patient’s name, date of birth, allergies, procedure, and site of the procedure. A connection with the article and my clinical experience was the great communication that occurred during the procedure. The article, “10 Years In, Why Time Out Still Matters,” states that, “Team members responsible for recrafting the time-out process were surgeons, anesthesia professionals, nurses, and surgical technologists whose daily practice is at the point of care in our ORs (Guglielmi, 2014).” Surgical time out requires effective team work to prevent medical errors. While the nurse was communicating with the health care team, all distractions were minimized. One of the questions that the article asks about the time out is, “Were all distractions (eg, music) minimized during the process (eg, muted, turned off)? (Canacari, 2014).” The healthcare team did an excellent job at executing this because there was no music playing, no one was talking, and everyone was present in the situation. All of the team members actively listened, and when the nurse was finished she asked if everyone agreed, and they said yes. The time out itself took a couple of minutes, but helped prevent patient errors that could be fatal. Finally, the last connection that I made with