Course Description
In the operating room (OR), nine areas of patient safety are commonly reviewed. These areas are surgical site infections, perioperative hypothermia, retention of foreign objects, wrong site surgery, perioperative pressure injuries, catheter-associated urinary tract infections, central line-associated bloodstream infections, venous thromboembolism, and medication errors, also addressed as adverse drug events. This course will focus on the patient safety issue of retained surgical items (RSIs), also referred to in literature as “retained foreign objects."
Learning Objectives
Upon completion of the course, the learner will be able to:
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Define a retained surgical item
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Explain the prevalence and significance of this patient safety issue
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Identify risk factors and potential causes of RSIs
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List the current best practices that should be implemented to avoid retention of surgical items
Intended Audience
This educational activity was developed for nurses and healthcare professionals.
Course Information
This is a microlearning course. Microlearning is an approach to learning new information in small segments of 3-15 minutes in length. This course is mobile-friendly!
There is no CE associated with this course. A certificate of completion is awarded, but no contact hours are awarded. If you are interested in earning CE, navigate to and complete the full version of this course.
Course Authors
This course was created by Megan Stewart, MD and Jessica Taylor, RN and edited by Brenda Kozak, DNP, MSN, RN, CNE.
Megan received her MD Degree from the University of Kentucky College of Medicine, and trained in General Surgery in Grand Rapids, MI.
Jessica received her master’s degree in nursing and is licensed as a trauma nurse specialist.
Brenda earned her doctorate in nursing practice and is a certified nurse educator. Brenda has over 20 years of clinical experience in nursing practice.