Patient safety in the surgical environment and surgical malpractice

Webinar on 31^st Asia Pacific Nursing Care Congress

February 17-18, 2022 | Webinar

Zehra UNAL

Hitit University, Turkey

Scientific Tracks Abstracts: Adv Practice Nurs

Abstract :

Malpractice is an important problem in the delivery of health services. Since malpractice has increased in the surgical field, safe surgical practices have gained importance. General surgery, orthopedics and neurosurgery are the surgical units where malpractice is most common. Studies have reported that the main cause of surgical malpractice is humaninduced errors. Among the causes of surgical malpractice are lack of communication, forgetting impurities, wrong person, location, operation, medicine. Prevention of surgical malpractice is the responsibility of the entire surgical team. In 2003, the Joint Commission published “Universal Protocol for Preventing Wrong Site, Wrong Procedure, and Wrong Person Surgery”. Another tool to promote patient safety in the surgical setting is the surgical safety checklist published by the World Health Organization. The checklist is based on the successful international program “Safe Surgery Saves Lives,” which incorporates validated checklists to be reviewed by the surgical team before induction of anesthesia, before skin incision, and before the patient leaves the operating room. Surgical malpractice causes medical, legal and social problems. This situation negatively affects the patients and their relatives, as well as health workers and health institutions. It has great importance to develop safe surgical practices that will prevent malpractice in health care delivery and to adapt them to service delivery. As an integral part of patient safety and health law, regulations for the prevention of malpractice should be included in health policies.

Biography :

Zehra ÜNAL is doctor (PhD) in the Department of Surgical Diseases Nursing. She has been working in Department of Surgical Diseases Nursing, Faculty of Health Sciences, Hitit University, Corum, Turkey since 2013.