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Strategies To Prevent Inadvertent Retained Surgical Items: An Integrative Review, Amanda J. Snape, Jed Duff, Oya Gumuskaya, Kerry Inder, Alison Hutton

Journal of Perioperative Nursing

Background: The surgical count process is currently the recommended strategy for preventing unintentionally retained surgical items (RSIs) in Australia. Despite this, RSIs still occur and remain an internationally recognised issue and sentinel event associated with morbidity and mortality. There are numerous new and emerging strategies to prevent inadvertent RSIs, apart from the surgical count, and many involve the use of technology. These strategies are not currently specified in Standards for Perioperative Nursing in Australia (the ACORN Standards).

Aim: To provide an integrative synthesis of the literature to identify current and emerging strategies for preventing RSIs during surgical procedures.

Design: An …

Exploring Risk, Antecedents And Human Costs Of Living With A Retained Surgical Item: A Narrative Synthesis Of Australian Case Law 1981–2018, Sonya Osborne, Tina Cockburn, Juliet Davis

Journal of Perioperative Nursing

Objective(s): This study aimed to critically examine the circumstances contributing to, and the human costs arising from, the retention of surgical items through the lens of Australian case law.

Design, setting and participants: We reviewed Australian cases from 1981 to 2018 to establish a pattern of antecedents and identify long-term patient impacts (human costs) of retained surgical items. We used a modified fourstep process to conduct a systematic review of legal doctrine, combined with a narrative synthesis approach to bring the information together for understanding. We searched LexisNexis, AustLII, Coroner Court websites, Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency Tribunal Decisions and …