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Discussion

OR hazards

Inquisitive pre-nursing student here who loves to read all the OR threads---thank you for all the great info. I have a question about hazards particular to the OR that may be different from other nursing areas, though I'm talking beyond the obvious sharp objects.

In my effort to get some first-person OR anecdotes, I read this very short book called Confessions of an Operating Room Nurse: Fifty Shades of Green (2013). I was disappointed by the book's skeletal info, but she mentioned some hazards that did leave me curious: covert dangers like carcinogenic smoke emitted from the machines, despite the smoke evacuators, and gases, despite the use of what she called scavenging systems. Is this of concern, do you OR nurses think, or are these fears overblown?

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    I've seen mixed opinions. You can check things like Google Scholar for articles about surgical smoke plume and anesthesia gas scavenging, but I would caution looking at who sponsors the research- I would not be surprised if many of the funds came from companies selling smoke evacuators.

    In my 10 years as an OR nurse, I have not seen any of my coworkers experience any illnesses proven to be related to job hazards, and we only (to my dated knowledge since I abandoned all specialties except cardiac) use smoke evacuators on condyloma cases (and perhaps a few others; my specialty doesn't use them at all). Doesn't mean it can't and hasn't happened; however, if it were a major issue I would hope an agency like OSHA would come up with some regulations.

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    Thank you, Rose Queen. Good to know about your coworkers. I'll also check out Google Scholar, keeping in mind what you said. (I'm embarrassed to say that I was not familiar with Google Scholar as a search engine, so thanks for mentioning it!)

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