Responsibility for patient care in perioperative practice

TLDR

The study aims to understand operating theatre nurses’ experiences of responsibility for patient care and safety in perioperative practice. A hermeneutic design was used, collecting interview data from 15 operating theatre nurses in 2012 and analyzing the transcripts through hermeneutical text interpretation. The analysis revealed two main themes: formal external responsibility—ensuring patient safety through risk avoidance, protection, and systematic teamwork—and personal ethical value—recognizing the patient as a person, caring for them, and preserving dignity, leading to a new understanding that nurses always keep the patient in mind.

Abstract

To obtain an understanding of operating theatre nurses' experiences of responsibility for patient care and safety in perioperative practice.A hermeneutic design were used.Data were collected during 2012 from 15 operating theatre nurses who participated in individual interviews. The text was analyzed by hermeneutical text interpretation.The texts revealed two main themes: A formal external responsibility and personal ethical value. Responsibility that the patient was not exposed to risks, protecting the patient's body, systematically planning and organizing work in the surgical team. The personal ethical value meant confirming the patient as a person, caring for the patient and preserving the patient's dignity. A new understanding emerged that the operating theatre nurse always have the patient in mind.