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Showing results for tags 'Anaesthetist'.
Found 116 results
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Content ArticleThe pursuit of patient safety involves reducing the gap between best practice and the care actually delivered to patients. Understanding how to reliably deliver best practice care using established anaesthetic techniques may, today, be more important than seeking new ones. Advances in anaesthesia safety involve analysing failures and devising strategies to address these. However, anaesthetists do not work in isolation, and their contribution to the function of the multidisciplinary teams in which they work has far-reaching consequences for patient care.
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Content ArticleInadequate access to anaesthesia and surgical services is often considered to be a problem of low- and middle-income countries. However, affluent nations, including Canada, Australia, and the United States, also face shortages of anesthesia and surgical care in rural and remote communities. Inadequate services often disproportionately affect indigenous populations. A lack of anaesthesia care providers has been identified as a major contributing factor to the shortfall of surgical and obstetrical care in rural and remote areas of these countries. In this report, Orser et al. summarises the challenges facing the provision of anaesthesia services in rural and remote regions
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WHO: Anaesthesia safety checklist
Patient Safety Learning posted an article in Surgery
Anaesthesia safety checklist from the World Health Organization (WHO) covering: before induction of anaesthesia operating room operative procedure list postoperative care. -
Content ArticleA National Patient Safety Alert has been issued on the risk of foreign body aspiration during intubation, advanced airway management or ventilation. Foreign body aspiration can occur if loose items are unintentionally introduced into the airway during intubation, ventilation or advanced airway management. This can lead to partial or complete airway blockage or obstruction, and if the cause is not suspected, can be fatal. The most common types of foreign bodies identified in incident reports were transparent backing plastic from electrocardiogram (ECG) electrodes and plastic caps of unclear origin. The alert asks providers to reduce this risk by purchasing safer alternative equipment without loose and transparent parts. Providers are also asked to develop or amend local protocols to ensure pre-prepared intubation and advanced airway management devices are covered or protected until use; and that the ends of reusable breathing system hoses are closed between patient cases.
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COVID-19: voices from the front line
Claire Cox posted an article in Stories from the front line
The COVID-19 pandemic has changed most lives internationally. Households have shifted, balancing financial concerns and anxieties about the health of family and friends with the trials and responsibilities of childcare. During this pandemic it became clear that while many were struggling with the same issues, a series of shared stories could help the wellbeing of frontline NHS staff who might feel isolated and alone. The following voices are not unique to Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, anaesthesia or healthcare in the UK, but they were selected from the department to represent some of many healthcare workers who have taken on new professional roles as well as radically different ways of working and living. -
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'Stop before you block' poster (Safe Anaesthesia Liaison Group)
Claire Cox posted an article in Resources for staff
This poster produced by the Safe Anaesthesia Liaison Group, is aimed at theatre staff - especially anaesthetists. it is to ensure they have a second checker when it comes to administering an anaesthetic block. -
Content ArticleThe Safe Anaesthesia Liaison Group (SALG)'s quarterly patient safety updates contain important learning from incidents reported to the National Reporting and Learning System (NRLS). The Royal College of Anaesthetists (RCoA) and the Association of Anaesthetists would like to bring these safety updates to the attention of as many anaesthetists and their teams as possible.
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Content ArticleBetween 30 June - 05 July 2020, the College conducted a survey to assess its members' views on the current preparedness to restart planned services.
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Bulletin: Royal College of Anaesthetists (July 2020)
Claire Cox posted an article in Coronavirus (COVID-19)
In this edition of the Royal College of Anaesthetists bulletin, articles include: psychological consequences of COVID-19 a shift in incident reporting sleep and exhaustion. -
Content ArticleBetween 30 June and 5 July 2020, the Royal College of Anaesthetists conducted a survey to assess its members' views on the current preparedness to restart planned services. The results found that doctors are not confident their hospitals would cope with a second COVID-19 surge and that more anaesthetists are suffering mental distress than ever before as morale drops.
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Content ArticleIn this article in the APSF newsletter, Jeffrey Cooper discusses the importance of the anaesthetist and surgeon relationship and why a healthy collaborative relationship is vital for patient safety. He suggests a number of practical relationship building principles. "I’m not promising you a rosy world if you work at this. But I think it’s worth your time for your patients’ safety to try as much as you can. Doing nothing will mean nothing will change. If your efforts succeed, you’ll have made a huge advance for patient safety, and you’re likely to find more joy and meaning in your professional daily life."
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Content ArticleThe safe management of a patient’s airway is one of the most challenging and complex tasks undertaken by a health professional - complications can result in devastating outcomes. How can anaesthetists improve safety, prevent complications, and be prepared to manage difficulties when they arise? How, in a crisis, can we ensure that human and technical resources are best utilised? This free course from Future Learn, endorsed by the Difficult Airway Society, will provide answers to these key questions and help you develop strategies to improve patient safety in your area of practice, discussing safe airway management in patient groups and multidisciplinary clinical settings.
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Creating a just culture
Claire Cox posted an article in Techniques
In this article, Prof Chris Frerk, Consultant Anaesthetist at Northampton General Hospital and trustee of the Clinical Human Factors Group explains what to do when things don’t go according to plan and we can learn from airway events. -
Content ArticleIn this video, Prof Kevin Fong, Consultant Anaesthetist at UCL (University College London) is joined in a panel discussion by three other experts in Human Factors and Ergonomics (HFE): Dr Fiona Kelly, Consultant Anaesthetist and Intensivist at Royal United Hospitals Bath and lead of the Difficult Airway Society (DAS) group on HFE Prof Chris Frerk, Consultant Anaesthetist at Northampton General Hospital and CHFG (Clinical Human Factors Group)Trustee Mr Clinton John, Operating Department Practitioner and Head for Clinical Education at UCLH. They will discuss and share their top tips about HFE in the context of airway management. This forms part of a free course from Future Learn Airway Matters course to help others explore key concepts underlying safe, multidisciplinary airway management.
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Content ArticleSurgical fires are fires that occur in, on or around a patient undergoing a medical or surgical procedure. Surgical fires are rare but serious events. The ECRI Institute estimates that approximately 550 to 600 surgical fires occur each year in the USA. The American Association of Nurse Anesthetists (AANA) is a collaborating partner of the FDA Preventing Surgical Fires Initiative. This initiative was launched to increase awareness of factors that contribute to surgical fires, disseminate surgical fire prevention tools, and promote the adoption of risk reduction practices throughout the healthcare community.
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Content ArticleFrom pre-operative care, through the anaesthetic and surgical phases to post-operation and recovery, this easy-to-read, quick-reference resource uses the unique at a Glance format to quickly convey need-to-know information in both images and text, allowing vital knowledge to be revised promptly and efficiently.
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Content ArticleNew research by Dr Sabine Nabecker and colleagues, published in the European Journal of Anaesthesiology, suggests surgery patients overwhelmingly prefer pre-surgical safety checklists to be completed in front of them, contrary to what is thought by doctors. Since WHO launched the Safe Surgery Saves Lives Program in 2008, surgery checklists have minimised errors and improve patient safety worldwide. The WHO-approved Safe Surgery checklist includes asking the patient to confirm their name, procedure and consent, and the medical team to check that the anaesthesia machine and medication has been checked. The list also checks if patients have known allergies and if antibiotics have been administered in the previous 60 minutes, as is standard with many surgeries. "Anaesthesia professionals are often reluctant to use checklists in front of patients because they fear causing patients' discomfort before anaesthesia and surgery," explains Dr Nabecker. "Yet our study shows that patients overwhelmingly prefer to see the checklist completed in front of them."
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Content ArticleIn Calgary, each of the three acute-care adult hospitals had different anesthetic medication carts with their own type and layout of anaesthetic medications. A number of anaesthesiologists moved among the different sites, increasing the potential for medication errors. The objective of this study from Schultz et al., published in the Canadian Journal of Anesthesia, was to identify the anesthetic medications to include and to determine how they should be grouped and positioned in a standardised anesthesia medication cart drawer. Implementation of the standardised medication drawer is expected to reduce the likelihood of medication errors. Future research should include testing the clinical implications of this standardization and applying the methodology to other areas.
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A dropped instrument, washed in theatre and immediately reused: a story from a theatre nurse
Anonymous posted an article in By health and care staff
What happens if a surgeon accidentally drops an instrument on the floor, picks it up and reuses, without it going through a steriliser? Should this be allowed to happen? Well it did!- Posted
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Content ArticleSam Goodhand is a Anaesthetic Registrar who I had the great pleasure in working with in Brighton University Hospitals NHS Trust. He produced these action/prompt cards for health professionals who attend and take part in RSI's. These are great to attach to your ID badge. This ensures you always have one at hand in those tricky situations.
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Content ArticlePete Smith is nothing without the energy and commitment of the amazing people who surround him. Increasing the technical skill of a healthcare clinician makes for incremental change. Improve the culture within which they work, think and communicate and suddenly quantum change is possible. Two perioperative nurses from a regional hospital in Victoria, Australia, innovated a simple, elegant solution to the problem of noise and distraction in the operating room. Pete Smith was one of them.
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Content ArticleIn January 2017, I read an article in Outpatient Surgery involving an elderly patient in the US who suffered multiple burns following the use of chlorohexidine bottled alcoholic prep. The Oregon woman filed a million-dollar lawsuit against the Oregon Outpatient Surgery Center in Tigard, Ore., saying she suffered severe burns when her face caught on fire during an electrocautery procedure. Having read this tragic story and escalated it to my theatre manager and colleagues, I decided to design and evaluate a FRAS (Fire Risk Assessment Score) and use it as part of the WHO Surgical Checklist at "time out" to raise awareness of fires in operating theatres.
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Content Article"It’s time to halt, take a break, and redraw the relationship between patient care and self-care. Self-care isn’t an optional luxury. It must sit at the heart of what we do, to ensure our teams can continue to rise to the challenges of working in the 21st century NHS, to give our patients the best of both ourselves, and the organisation so many of us are proud to be a part of."
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Content ArticleDr Michael Farquhar, Consultant in Sleep Medicine at Evelina London Children's Hospital, gives an ARIES talk on how fatigue affects the body and the potential impact on anaesthetists and patients.
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Content ArticlePostoperative delirium is common and has multiple adverse consequences. Guidelines recommend routine screening for postoperative delirium beginning in the post-anaesthesia care unit. The 4 A’s test (4AT) is a widely used assessment tool for delirium; however, there are no studies evaluating its use in the post-anaesthesia care unit. Saller et al. evaluated the performance of the 4AT in the post-anaesthesia care unit in a tertiary German medical centre. The findings published in Anaesthesia suggest that the 4AT is an effective and robust instrument for delirium detection in the post-anaesthesia care unit. suggest that the 4AT is an effective and robust instrument for delirium detection in the post-anaesthesia care unit.
