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Errors in nursing practice pose a continuing threat to patient safety. A descriptive, correlational study was conducted to examine the definitions, circumstances, and perceived causes of intraoperative nursing errors; reactions of perioperative nurses to intraoperative nursing errors; and the relationships among coping with intraoperative nursing errors, emotional distress, and changes in practice made as a result of error. The results indicate that strategies of accepting responsibility and using self-control are significant predictors of emotional distress. Seeking social support and planful problem solving emerged as significant predictors of constructive changes in practice. Most predictive of defensive changes was the strategy of escape/avoidance.

As health care facilities restructure and downsize, many are evaluating the value of RNs as members of the health care team. While many studies have been done about how health care systems measure value, no studies have been found that focus on areas of concern from the perspective of nurses who actually work in the OR. This article details the results of a phenomenologic study that used one-on-one interviews to ask five perioperative nurses how they perceive their work world. By telling the nurses stories, five essential themes of being a nurse in the perioperative work world emerged.

The successful and safe transfer of the patient from one phase of care to another is contingent on optimal communication by all team members. Nurses are often in a natural leadership position to improve safe practices during hand overs. A holistic understanding of the patient allows the perioperative nurse the opportunity to identify issues and choose a nursing diagnosis based on key elements of a patient's needs and goals--information that should be relayed during patient transfers. This article reviews best practices in transfer-of-care communication to enable perioperative RNs to take an active, leading role in hand-over processes.