Incidence of Staff Illness in the O.R.

[porsch65]

Good Morning and Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays to all of you at All Nurses. We had an interesting conversation at work the other night concerning the seemingly hight incidence of illness amongst O.R. Nurses in our Surgical Suite. We have a staff of about 30 -35 nurses. In our group we have had two nurses with carcinoid tumors, several with lupus, fibromylagia, thyroid conditions, t.b, and t-cell lymphoma. Several of our recovery room staff have had miscarriages. Once health and safety was called in (not occupational health who said nothing was wrong) it was found that the exhaled anaesthtetic gases were 10 x's higher than they should have been. Scavenging systems were installed and that problem seems to have stopped. But with all that we are exposed to bone cement, formaldehyde, x-ray, MRSA, VRE, ... is this just an "occupational hazard"? We have recently moved into a new building (2 years) some of us wonder if it was the old building. I find it interesting that in our town, a pop. of 45,000 two nurses who work in the same building in the same department come down with a fairly rare type of tumor, 1:100,000, another one comes down with a rare type of lymphoma 1:1,000,000. Some of these nurses are really young, 33, fit, marathon runners etc. Those who were asthmatic found that they had to use their inhalers more than ever before. Others are more tired than they had ever been than when they had worked on the ward doing 12 hour D/N shifts. So what's the deal? What is the incidence of illness in your O.R.? Anybody notice anything unusual or is it all "just in our heads". Just thought I would toss that out there and see what you all had to say.

Best wishes to everyone for Happy Holidays and all the best in 2006.

P65

[SFCardiacRN]

I am not aware of OR RN's having higher cancer rates. Our illness problems are more along the lines of higher sickcalls on Mondays & Fridays and among ortho nurses on Dr. J's day (an A-HOLE orthopod). Usually illness clusters are just that, clusters that are outliers from the norm.

[grimmy, RN]

i would try to look into it further. i agree that we work with some hazardous chemicals on a fairly regular basis. did you know that inhaling 1 gm of laser plume is equivalent to smoking 6 cigarettes? our or masks are not equipped to keep the carcinogens in laser and esu plume from being inhaled by the surgical team. the formaldehyde, bone cement, etc. are known carcinogens. we've recently undergone a series of educational sessions regarding or fires, and wow - it's amazing what can happen in a matter of seconds. health and safety are what nurses are all about - no reason not to start at "home."

[SFCardiacRN]

There are special small micron filter masks for use with Lasers. These are JCAHO mandated PPE's (personal protective equipment). Contact employee health and your union if necessary. You'll have them in a flash. They are hard to breath through though. Almost as bad as TB masks. These are needed because live virus (human papilloma) has been found in laser plume!

[SFCardiacRN]

Duplicate

[Lasoniamacaroni]

do OR's have special evacuation filters installed in the rooms? That is some serious business with all the carcinogens flying around.