DENVER, June 25 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — The Association of periOperative Registered Nurses (AORN) announced its endorsement of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Safe Surgery Saves Lives initiative, which includes the WHO Surgical Safety Checklist. The initiative, which was officially launched today in Washington, D.C., is intended to generate global awareness and bolster the message that concrete efforts for safe surgery will contribute to patient safety worldwide.
By endorsing the Safe Surgery Saves Lives initiative, AORN and other organizations express their support of the WHO Surgical Safety Checklist as a tool to improve patient safety in global settings. “The benefits will be that we’ll be able to compare results across the world in terms of what are safe environments and what are the practices that produce safe surgical outcomes,” said Linda Groah, RN, MSN, CNOR, CNAA, FAAN, executive director of AORN.
The checklist promotes safe surgical outcomes by ensuring patients across the globe undergo the right operation at the right site, with safe anesthesia, established infection-prevention measures and effective teamwork. Statistics from WHO indicate there are nearly twice as many surgeries performed worldwide as there are child deliveries, with significantly more risks involved. “Surgery is a very important part of health care,” Groah said. “There are over 230 million surgeries done every year across the world. That means that one out of every 25 people in the world will have surgery this year.”
AORN is among 23 international organizations that have endorsed the Safe Surgery Saves Lives initiative, including ACORN (Australia), AfPP (the United Kingdom), ORNAC (Canada), KAORN (Korea), PNCNZ (New Zealand), SATS (South Africa) and ZOTNIG (Zambia).
“This initiative is so important because it’s one of the first times that we bring nurses, surgeons and anesthesiologists together to agree on a minimum standard of care that will provide safe patient care for the surgical patient,” Groah said.
AORN, Inc., the Association of periOperative Registered Nurses, represents approximately 40,000 Registered Nurses in the U.S. and abroad who facilitate the management, teaching and practice of perioperative nursing, or who are enrolled in nursing education or engaged in perioperative research. Its members also include perioperative nurses who work in related business and industry sectors. AORN’s mission is to support RNs in achieving optimal outcomes for patients undergoing operative and other invasive procedures. AORN promotes quality patient care by providing its members with education, standards, services and representation. For more information, visit aorn.org.
Association of Perioperative Registered Nurses
CONTACT: Tasha Patterson of AORN, +1-303-755-6304, Ext. 234,[email protected]
Web Site: http://www.aorn.org/
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