Question

Read the following scenario and answer the questions.

An 83-year-old patient has been brought to the operating room and is scheduled for a knee replacement in the room you are working in as an assistant circulator. The patient is wearing glasses and a hearing aid. The RN circulator greets the patient while you prepare the safety strap on the operating table. You and the RN circulator assist the patient in moving onto the operating table. The RN removes the patient's glasses and places them on the desk. You and the RN circulator continue to prepare for the surgery while keeping watch on the patient. The anesthesia provider enters the room. After the surgery is over and the patient has been taken back to his room on the ward, the ward nurse calls to ask about the patient's hearing aid and glasses. The patient does not have them, and they are not found in his room. Later in the day, the hearing aid is found in the laundry.

a. What could have happened to the hearing aid between the time the patient arrived in the operating room until his return to the ward?

b. What might have been the consequences for the patient if the hearing aid was not found?

c. How should the patient's glasses have been handled by the circulators (including yourself)?

d. Whose responsibility is it to take care of the glasses and hearing aid?

e. Should the patient have been allowed to wear the glasses and hearing aid to surgery? Explain your answer.

f. How do you think the patient may have reacted on finding out his glasses and hearing aid were missing?

Answer 1

a) The patient received in the OT, with hearing aid. The hearing aid is not properly handed over to the ward nurse. It is misplaced over OT desk. The house keeping department person are allowed to clean after the surgery. So they cleared all the things including hearing aid. This could have happened to the hearing aid between the time the patient arrived in the operating room until his return to the ward.

b) If the hearing aid was not found, the consequences for the patient are difficulty in hearing, difficulties in carrying out day today actives etc. The sense of hearing is very important for quality of life. This will be disturbed for this patient, without hearing aid.

c) When receiving the patient to OT, patient should be properly checked. The glasses has to be returned to the ward nurse. So that, when the patient is received after surgery, it is easy to get glasses from the ward nurse. This is how the patient's glasses has to be handled by the circulator ( including me).

d) It is ward nurse responsibility to take care of the glasses and hearing aid.