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Toward A Smoke-Free Or, Kay Ball

Nursing Faculty Scholarship

The hazards of surgical smoke are well documented. So why are many smoke evacuation systems going unused?

You can write all the surgical smoke evacuation policies in the world, spell out exactly what you expect to be done and provide the resources needed for compliance, but if you ignore the human element — the surgeons and staff who populate your ORs — then you aren't going to change behavior. Here's how you can educate your teams about the hazards of surgical smoke and get them to use evacuators when necessary.