"Nurses know': speaking up for safety.

Abstract

The Perioperative environment can be fast-paced, high patient turnover and at times, high stress. The complex nature of anaesthesia and surgery performed places our patients at risk of adverse events and near misses (Hooven, 2024). While ISR1 and ISR2 events are rare, they continue to occur and are likely under-reported (Hooven, 2024). Treatment delay, retained surgical item, wrong patient/site/procedure/implant (Carmack & Valleru, 2022; Hooven, 2024) has a devastating effect on patients, their families and the clinicians caring for them. Interestingly, nurses’ perceptions of patient safety are more pessimistic than those of surgeons (Hooven, 2024), highlighting the vigilance of nurses as patient advocates and the opportunity nurses have to positive influence patient risks. Ineffective communication remains a root cause of sentinel events (Carmack & Valleru, 2022), necessitating a culture of safety, speaking up and listening.