Role of the operating room nurses in the ureteric stent register. Issue 2 (23rd December 2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Seenappa, Nethravathy B.; Krishnamoorthy, Venkatesh; Sinha, Maneesh; T, Krishna Prasad
• Is Part Of: International journal of urological nursing. Volume 16:Issue 2(2022)
• Page Start: 114
• Page End: 119
• Publication Date: 2021-12-23
• Subjects: compliance -- forgotten stent -- operating room in‐charge -- scrub nurse -- stent register -- urologist; Urological nursing -- Periodicals; 616.60231
• DOI: 10.1111/ijun.12302
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1749-7701

Abstract

Abstract: In any urology practice, a minority of stents are 'forgotten' with ensuing clinical and medico‐legal implications. This paper assesses the role of the scrub nurse and operating room in‐charge as key resources who can significantly improve compliance in stent capture. We assess the impact of a double validation process where operating room nurses monitor compliance data entry in the stent register by the operating urologist. The study is a retrospective analysis of the computerized stent register maintained in our institute. Data was collected from January 2012 to December 2019. The number of entries missed by urologists in the stent register, the number of times the scrub nurse could identify the missed entries and the additional number picked up by the operating room in‐charge were evaluated. A total of 2839 renal units were stented in 2488 patients during the study period. The operating urologist had not updated the stent register in 147 (5.4%) patients. The scrub nurse had rectified this error in 65 and the remaining 82 missed entries were detected by the operating room in‐charge. A dual validation method of verifying stent deployment entries by the scrub nurse and operating room in‐charge minimizes the chances of missed documentation.