Perioperative educator Assistant Professor/Tan Chingfen Graduate School of Nursing at the UMass Chan Medical School Sudbury, Massachusetts, United States
Description: Wrong-site surgery continues to occur at alarming rates despite safety mechanisms for preventing wrong-site surgery. Root causes of wrong-site surgery include poor organizational safety culture, which does not support adherence to safety mechanisms nor encourages perioperative team members to feel empowered to speak up when there is a problem. This study aimed to evaluate an educational intervention on perioperative nurses’ perceptions of safety culture in the workplace around preventing wrong-site surgery. A sample of 81 perioperative nurses was recruited to complete the Safety Attitudes Questionnaire (OR Version) pre and post-educational intervention. Participants logged into HealthStream to complete the educational module. The pre-test score for the group is lower (M=3.39) than the post-test score (M=3.56). Pre-test scores were unexpectedly high, leaving negligible room for post-test improvement. Although not statistically significant, this result could be reflective of more knowledge acquired after the module content around safety culture was reviewed.