The Anesthesia Record

We spent Friday morning learning about proper patient positioning. While this is something that we all learned about in nursing school, it's an especially important topic to grasp as an anesthesia provider for a number of reasons:

1. Unlike many patients outside of the OR, those undergoing surgery are either sedated or unable to feel certain areas of their bodies and are therefore unable to identify pain or discomfort associated with improper positioning.

2. Patients must often be kept in place during the length of the surgery, so it is important that they are positioned appropriately from the get go to avoid common injuries such as brachial nerve plexus damage. This is especially true during long procedures.

3. As the anesthesia provider, ensuring that one's patients are adequately secured on the OR table to prevent falls is not only a safety issue, it's a pride issue. (I mean, come on, how embarrassing would that be?!)

4. Ultimately, the anesthesia provider is responsible for the long-term outcomes related to patient positioning!

We had the opportunity to observe proper patient positioning in the OR with the guidance of that day's lecturer, Nancy, and her model, Courtney (who also happens to moonlight as our clinical coordinator).