Assessment of a Surgical Video for Veterinary - myassignmenthelp

Question: Discuss about theAssessment of a Surgical Video for Veterinary. Answer: This assignment will analyse a surgical video and will discuss the good and bad practices demonstrated by the surgical assistant and the surgeon during the practice. Video analysis Surgical assistants are involved in providing assistance in closure of wounds, exposure, and maintenance of homeostasis, during an operation, which facilitates the surgeons to carry out safe and effective operation that will ensure optimal outcomes. In addition, a surgical assistant is also entitled the responsibility of performing pre and post-operative duties. These lead to better care of the patients. In the aforementioned video, there were some best practices demonstrated by the surgical assistant. They are as follows: The operating theatre is often a messy place and contains several germs. Shoe covers or waterproof boots are used by surgeons and assistants while entering an operation theatre. The surgical assistant used a shoe cover as a protective measure that would prevent contamination with pus and blood. Further, it would help in eliminating dirt particles and microbes, thereby maintaining a sanitary environment. The shoe cover would also protect her from body fluids and accidental spills. Cleaning serves as one of the most important practices in an operation theatre. The surgical assistant had removed all unnecessary items from the operation table and had cleaned all the exposed surfaces with a This would help in killing any microorganisms that were present on the surface of the table and would prevent contamination. The assistant had used bouffant surgical caps before the operation. Chances of contamination of the organism would get lowered (McHugh et al., 2014). The assistant gave an autoclaved surgical pack to the surgeon prior the surgery. The pack contained all sterilized instruments that were placed inside a sealed folded cloth wrap that had been autoclaved for and steam sterilization. This would further prevent contamination (Seavey, 2013). She used sterilized scissors when asked for by the surgeon. Use of sterilized instruments was another good practice. There were some inappropriate practices by the assistant during the surgery. They are as follows: She did not wear disposable gloves. Gloves are one of the most common personal protective equipments (PPE), and act as barriers in the pathway of microorganism entry. They are necessary whenever a surgeon or an assistant come in contact with body secretion or fluids (Garus-Pakowska, Sobala Szatko, 2013). There was no use of aprons or surgical gowns. Surgical gowns function as protective items and maintain aseptic conditions by inhibiting the transfer of pathogens (Ward et al., 2014). She did not wash or scrub her hands. Infected hands can lead to nosocomial surgical site infections. However, she did not maintain pre-operative hand hygiene before the surgery (Harrop et al., 2012). She wore masks after the operation had begun. This is inappropriate as masks provide protection from infection by pathogens. There was no evidence of animal preparation and hair clipping. Clipped skin is generally disinfected with iodine or chlorhexidine to inhibit bacterial contamination. The surgical wrap was not shown to be pre-sterilised and it was touched with bare hands. This might have led to contamination. The post-surgery autoclave temperature was fixed at 184 F, although heavily wrapped items should be autoclaved at 270 F. This would prevent sterilization of the instruments (Dancer et al., 2012). Although she wore a surgical cap, her head was not completely covered. This would increase chances of her hair falling on the operation table. The animal was brought to the recovery area immediately after the surgery although it should have been kept under observation for a few hours. Warm blankets and heat sources were not provided to the animal. This could lead to post-surgical hypothermia. Best practices Some best practices could have been followed during the surgery to prevent contamination and surgical site infection. The assistant should have removed her finger rings and washed her hands with suitable disinfectants. Hand scrubbing is essential before to wearing gloves to prevent pathogen transfer from the skin to the surgical instruments or the patient (Widmer, 2013). The hands and arms must have been washed with antimicrobial soap before proceeding to the operation room. She should have trimmed her fingernails to prevent puncture of the gloves and further contamination. Long fingernails can tear gloves and lead to infection (Hayes et al., 2014). Wearing surgical gown or aprons is another best practice that should have been followed. Not wearing those lead to a direct exposure of the clothes to the patient drapes, body fluids and blood. That increased chances of contamination in both the patient as well as the animal. Furthermore, preparation of the animal prior to the surgery is one of the most essential steps that should have been rigorously followed. Animal preparation involves clipping of hair and fur from the region where the surgery is to be performed. Clippers should have been used parallel to the skin to clip the hairs in their direction of growth. There was a need to scrub the clipped skin and rinse it with water that contained a dilute solution of chlorhexidine (Turk, Singh Weese, 2015). 3 surgical scrub applications should have been used followed by an alcohol cleansing of the surgical site. Furthermore, the scrub should have been applied in a bulls eye pattern (towards periphery). Reflective summary From the aforementioned surgical video I learnt that it is extremely essential for surgeons and the assistants to follow the protocols associated with a surgery in order to prevent any adverse reactions and surgical site contamination. The VOA assignment provided me with the opportunity to understand that a surgical team is responsible for preventing contamination in an operation theatre. They should follow several procedures pre- and post-surgery to ensure that the organism that has been operated upon is free from any infection. The assignment gave me a clear understanding of the practices related to hand scrubbing, disinfection of the operation table, usage of disposable gloves, shoe covers, masks and surgical caps, which prevent all forms of pathogen entry (Mitchell, Williamson Molesworth, 2015). I further learnt that proper sterilization of surgical instruments is essential. The findings will help me to enrich my surgical capabilities and will improve my performance as a VOA. References Dancer, S. J., Stewart, M., Coulombe, C., Gregori, A., Virdi, M. (2012). Surgical site infections linked to contaminated surgical instruments.Journal of Hospital Infection,81(4), 231-238. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhin.2012.04.023 Garus-Pakowska, A., Sobala, W., Szatko, F. (2013). The use of protective gloves by medical personnel.International journal of occupational medicine and environmental health,26(3), 423-429. DOI 10.2478/s13382-013-0095-1. Harrop, J. S., Styliaras, J. C., Ooi, Y. C., Radcliff, K. E., Vaccaro, A. R., Wu, C. (2012). Contributing factors to surgical site infections.Journal of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons,20(2), 94-101. doi: 10.5435/JAAOS-20-02-094. Hayes, G. M., Reynolds, D., Moens, N. M., Singh, A., Oblak, M., Gibson, T. W., ... Dewey, C. (2014). Investigation of incidence and risk factors for surgical glove perforation in small animal surgery.Veterinary surgery,43(4), 400-404. DOI:10.1111/j.1532-950X.2014.12159.x. McHugh, S. M., Corrigan, M. A., Hill, A. D. K., Humphreys, H. (2014). Surgical attire, practices and their perception in the prevention of surgical site infection.The Surgeon,12(1), 47-52. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.surge.2013.10.006 Mitchell, R. J., Williamson, A., Molesworth, B. (2015). Use of a human factors classification framework to identify causal factors for medication and medical device-related adverse clinical incidents.Safety science,79, 163-174. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2015.06.002 Seavey, R. (2013). High-level disinfection, sterilization, and antisepsis: current issues in reprocessing medical and surgical instruments.American journal of infection control,41(5), S111-S117. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajic.2012.09.030 Turk, R., Singh, A., Weese, J. S. (2015). Prospective surgical site infection surveillance in dogs.Veterinary Surgery,44(1), 2-8. DOI:10.1111/j.1532-950X.2014.12267.x. Ward Sr, W. G., Cooper, J. M., Lippert, D., Kablawi, R. O., Neiberg, R. H., Sherertz, R. J. (2014). Glove and gown effects on intraoperative bacterial contamination.Annals of surgery,259(3), 591-597. doi: 10.1097/SLA.0b013e3182a6f2d9. Widmer, A. F. (2013). Surgical hand hygiene: scrub or rub?.Journal of Hospital Infection,83, S35-S39. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/S0195-6701(13)60008-0