An AORN Journal article* revealed that “inadvertent perioperative hypothermia is estimated to affect 70% of surgical patients and is associated with adverse clinical outcomes, lengthened hospital stays, and increased costs.”
Despite the astoundingly high number of patients affected by perioperative hypothermia, the results of the AORN survey indicate that there is still a significant need for ongoing education on the topic. Respondents indicated that complications of hypothermia were common within the surgical suite.
The authors of the survey concluded that “results indicate a need for ongoing interventions to increase awareness and promote best practices to prevent and manage inadvertent perioperative hypothermia.” Encompass Group, LLC’s Clinical Resource Team has responded to AORN’s call for education with our clinical education course.
Mind the Gap focuses on how to raise the bar with patient-focused warming strategies for the perioperative suite. Our team currently offers AORN chapter presentations and webinars on hypothermia prevention and passive warming implementation. If your chapter is interested in learning more about patient warming strategies to decrease hypothermia in perioperative suites, please contact me about our presentation: Mind the Gap: Utilizing Evidence-Based Outcome Evaluation to Simplify Patient Warming.
If you personally are looking to expand your knowledge through continuing education courses, consider registering for one of our two Mind the Gap CEU courses at http://www.MedcomRN.com/encompass, or reach out to me personally for more information.
*The article mentioned is titled “Inadvertent Perioperative Hypothermia: Current Nursing Knowledge”, and authored by Karen K Giuliano, PhD, RN, FAAN and Jane Hendricks, BSN, RN, CNOR and was publishing in the May 2017 AORN Journal.