Free Vet Tech CE Anesthesia webinar with Nicki Grint!
This FREE recorded CE webinar covers some very easy ways that you and your clinic can improve your anesthesia safety with minimal disruption, through the use of check lists.
Watch and listen to Nicki guide you through the risks of anesthesia, errors that may occur and the check lists you can put in place and how to execute them to help prevent mistakes from happening in clinic.
Follow along the webinar and gain key insights into how vet techs are instrumental when implementing and following this process!
Click the button below to fill out the form and gain access to the webinar.
Carry on reading for some bonus follow-on content about how surgical safety checklists work…
Anesthesia and surgery checklists introduce three focused periods of pausing and patient detail checking before proceeding to the next stage of the procedure. These three stages include the points considered the most crucial in a surgical procedure and represent stages where missing a step could have the most significant consequences.
The three stages are:
Prior to induction of anesthesia
– “sign in”
Prior to the procedure beginning (e.g. before the first surgical incision is made)
– “time out”
Prior to recovering the patient
– “sign out”
Sign in
The first part of the checklist is the “sign in” stage which should be completed before induction so any issues that could prevent anesthesia are discussed. It covers items such as anesthetic machine checks, airway risk, blood loss estimations and ensuring the correct patient is present.
Time out
The “time out” stage is completed before the first incision. It is when the surgical team pauses to fill out the SSC and focus on the patient.
It covers the critical steps required to prevent adverse events, and each item should be read aloud and verbally confirmed by the team in the room. The team should communicate their specific concerns regarding the procedure and anesthetic, including fluid therapy plans, perioperative analgesia and expected blood loss. During this stage, the equipment sterility and availability are verified, the patient and surgery site are confirmed, and swabs are counted in.
Sign out
At the end of the procedure, all instruments, needles and swabs must be accounted for and recorded. The team should communicate post-operative concerns, plans and any adverse events. This forms the “sign out” section of the checklist.