Orientation to the Operating Room Flashcards
Acuity
The complexity of care given in the operating room.
Agency
An establishment engaged in providing health care.
Airborne precautions
Precautions that reduce the risk of an airborne transmission of infectious airborne droplet nuclei particle.
Alcohol-based preparations
Products used for hand antisepsis that increasingly are being used as an alternative to the traditional surgical hand scrub using detergent-based antiseptic agents. Formulations include foams and liquid rinses. These products do not remove soil; therefore, application must be preceded by a soap and water wash when used by surgical team members.
Ambient air
The surrounding environmental air.
Anatomical brush stroke scrub method
A scrub method that uses a prescribed number of brush strokes applied lengthwise with the brush or sponge for each surface of the fingers, hands, and arms, to include 30 strokes on the nails and 20 strokes on all other surfaces.
Anteroom
An outer room that leads to another room and that often is used as a waiting room.
Artificial nails
Substances or devices applied or added to the natural nails to augment or enhance the wearer’s own nails. They include, but are not limited to, bondings, tips, wrappings, and tapes.
Assessment
A continuous activity to collect and document data about the patient’s health status.
Barrier material
Material that prevents the penetration of microorganisms, particulates, and fluids.
Biomedical services personnel
Those individuals in an institution that are trained and qualified to check, troubleshoot, and repair medical equipment.
Cellulosic
A substance made from cellulose or derived from cellulose, such as linen and paper products.
Cleaning
Removal of all foreign material from objects; must precede disinfection and sterilization procedures. A process using friction, detergent, and water to remove organic debris.
Competency
The knowledge, skills, and abilities necessary to fulfill the professional role functions of a registered nurse in the operating room.
Confine and contain
A principle that recommends prompt cleanup of items contaminated with blood, tissue, or body fluids.
Contact precautions
Precautions designed to reduce the risk of transmission of epidemiologically important microorganisms by direct or indirect contact.
Contaminated
The presence of potentially infectious pathogenic microorganisms on animate or inanimate objects.
Critical item
Instruments or objects that are introduced directly into the human body, either into or in contact with the blood stream or normally sterile areas of the body; an item that enters sterile tissue or the vascular system.
Decontamination
Any physical or chemical process that serves to reduce the number of microorganisms on any inanimate object to render that object safe for subsequent handling.
Diagnosis
The identification of patient problems, actual or potential, that are amenable to intervention by the perioperative nurse.
Disinfection
A process that destroys some forms of microorganisms, excluding bacterial spores.
Droplet precautions
Precautions that reduce the risk of large particle droplet transmission of infectious agents.
Electrosurgery
The cutting and coagulation of body tissue with a high radio frequency current.
Electrosurgical unit (ESU)
For the purposes of this document, the ESU is defined as the generator; the foot switch with cord (if applicable); and the electrical plug, cord, and connections.