Holy Smoke: There's a Fire in the Operating Room
Childbearing Poster Presentation Purpose for the Program Recently, the Association of Perioperative Nurses (AORN) and The Joint Commission (TJC) have stressed the importance of operating room (OR) fire safety. One of the many competencies labor and delivery (LD however, much of the education regarding fire safety was presented in a didactic format with little hands-on focus. Thus, the perinatal simulation team developed an OR fire simulation scenario to focus on immediate intervention, role assignment, effective communication, use of the fire extinguisher, and evacuation. Implementation, Outcomes, and Evaluation Because OR fires in L&D are rare, staff are not comfortable performing all the necessary steps that are needed to extinguish a fire, ensure patient and staff safety, and evacuate the OR. In L&D, the mother–infant dyad creates a unique situation and special consideration must be taken with a compromised infant who requires resuscitation. The simulation team developed an intense OR fire scenario, implemented and recorded it, and debriefed the participants immediately after. Focus was placed on the duties of the perioperative team, effective communication between the perioperative and the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) teams, extinguishing the fire with a live fire extinguisher, evacuation of the patients, and vulnerability of infant abductions during fires. The perioperative and NICU teams admitted to having little awareness that an OR fire could occur, steps that must be taken during a fire to ensure safety to all, and use of a fire extinguisher. The teams also voiced how the training increased their awareness and gave them a better understanding of all steps that must be taken to ensure patient safety for the mother–infant dyad. Implications for Nursing Practice By creating an innovative scenario and a unique learning experience, the simulation team was able to increase the perioperative and neonatal teams’ confidence level surrounding a circumstance that while very possible is also very rare in our environment.