الفهرس 
IntroductionOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
Provision of a safe environment is a primary consideration in every health care setting. This is especially true with the operating room environment since it is surrounded by many hazards that include physical, chemical and biological hazards. The potential hazards might endanger the safety of the operating room personnel (nurses, anesthesiologists, surgeons and workers) because of the danger inherent in surgery and technically sophisticated equipment and procedures used, which place operating room personnel and patients at high risk for many hazards (Allen, 2001).
Developing standards of intraoperative nursing intervention will enable the nurses to identify deficiencies in the provision of care, and to compare their performance with the required performance established in the standards. Furthermore, if the standards of intraoperative nursing intervention are set clearly, they demonstrate what nurses need to do to provide acceptable level of care through the use of performance checklists of the procedures most commonly done in the operative room derived from the standards (Gibbs, 2000).
Operating room safety has a significant influence on patient care. The researcher, found that multiple approaches are needed to advance a culture of patient safety. Ultimately the best process occurs when physicians take ownership of the cultural change. Barday and Barclay (2008) recommend that whatever approach systems are taken to implementing a culture of safety in the operating room that physicians are intimately involved in the process.
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This study was aiming at developing and validating operating room safety standards through:
1. Identifying the potential hazards in the operating rooms.
2. Proposing safety standards in the operating room.
3. Verifying the proposed safety standards according to experts’ opinions.
The study was carried out at El-Demerdash University Hospital. All available nurses and doctors represented in the operation rooms were included in the study. Their total number was 42 nurses and 38 doctors. Data were collected using four different tools. These were namely; 1) self-administered opinionnaire sheet for safety standards for physicians and nurses, 2) Hazards opinionnaire for nurses and physicians, 3) An Observation Checklist for Safety Surgical Nurses’ performance and 4) An Operating Room Safety Standards’ Validation form for jury.
The study revealed the following findings:
1. Less than half of study subjects (45.2 %) had nursing secondary diploma. The highest percentage of them (64.3%) were working as OR nurse. Their years of experience ranged between one and twenty years, with more than half of them (52.4%) having experience ten years or more.
2. Concerning availability, there were low percentages in several items as wearing a protective apron when X-ray is used (47.5%), and using blunt surgical needles in infectious cases to avoid injuries (55.0%).
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3. There was very high percentages of the importance in all items such as count with circulating nurse the instruments, towels, surgical gauze and needles (100.0%).
4. High percentages of the importance in most of items such as; the person should continuously promote the services provided for OR (93.8%) and The unit should seek help from medical and nursing faculty staff to achieve the highest level of safety of working processes (92.5%).
5. As for occupational exposure at OR, the highest percentages detected in certain items were related to physical hazards as radiation (63.8%), while for chemical hazards high anesthetics ( 61.3%), and skin allergies (65.0%).
6. These were high percentages related to biological hazards items as hepatitis (67.5%), and respiratory infections (62.5%).
7. The highest percentages were related to nurse counts before operation gauze-sponges (83.3%), and nurse counts before closure of peritoneum gauze-sponges (81.0%).
8. The lowest percentage was related to nurses follow appropriate procedures in handling and disposing of sharp instruments or needles (31.0 %).
9. 1) Considering, 2) Agreement and 3) highly percentages were related to jury group members upon the general
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responsibilities of the operating room nurse in the proposed standards all the items. Ranging from 97.8% and 95.6%.
10. 1) Concerning, 2) agreement and 3) high percentages were related to jury group members upon the face validity of the proposed operating room nurse’s standards most of the items, while the highest was related to ’’the standard statements are understandable’’ (95.7%).
11. The standard reflects the safety measures in operating room (95.6%), and the proposed standard can be used to guide nurses for safety in operating room (95.6%).
In conclusion, the operating room team had high percentages for importance, but low in availability and applicability of performance. They must use protective measures in the OR to protect them from potential hazards. The applicability safety standards will increase safety in OR for patients and team workers.