Surgical nurses must hold delicate and difficult instruments in place, trying, with great difficulty, not to tremble or lose their balance, while listening intently to the surgeon’s commands.
Soon this dull but straining job will be done by safe and efficient robotic ‘instrument positioners’, instruments which hold the surgeon’s tools in place during an operation. Surgical nurses will no longer be necessary.
This is the conclusion of Dr. Karen den Boer, of the Dioc-programme ‘Minimally invasive surgery and interventional techniques (MISIT)’. Den Boer attended 78 gall bladder operations, studying the possibilities and effectiveness of the instrument positioners.
During ‘buttonhole surgery’, surgical nurses operate a laparoscope, a long, straight, rigid tube with a camera and light on its tip. The laparoscope allows surgeons to see, via a monitor, into the patient’s belly.
De Boer found that surgeons were satisfied with the instrument positioners, which are not yet in general use. When using an instrument positioner, the operation time was the same, as were the number of procedures. The pre-operation preparation time increased, however, but then decreased once the surgeons learned how to use the new devices.
Den Boer had participating surgeons fill in questionnaires. The surgeons reported that the operations were as efficient and routine as with surgical nurses, but that they actually preferred using the instrumental positioners because the surgeons could then operate the laparoscopes themselves.
Den Boer hopes her research will result in more attention being given to teaching surgeons how to use surgical instrument positioners. “Surgeons learn by practising on patients. I don’t approve of that. After all, pilots practise first in a flight simulator.”
Surgical nurses must hold delicate and difficult instruments in place, trying, with great difficulty, not to tremble or lose their balance, while listening intently to the surgeon’s commands. Soon this dull but straining job will be done by safe and efficient robotic ‘instrument positioners’, instruments which hold the surgeon’s tools in place during an operation. Surgical nurses will no longer be necessary.
This is the conclusion of Dr. Karen den Boer, of the Dioc-programme ‘Minimally invasive surgery and interventional techniques (MISIT)’. Den Boer attended 78 gall bladder operations, studying the possibilities and effectiveness of the instrument positioners.
During ‘buttonhole surgery’, surgical nurses operate a laparoscope, a long, straight, rigid tube with a camera and light on its tip. The laparoscope allows surgeons to see, via a monitor, into the patient’s belly.
De Boer found that surgeons were satisfied with the instrument positioners, which are not yet in general use. When using an instrument positioner, the operation time was the same, as were the number of procedures. The pre-operation preparation time increased, however, but then decreased once the surgeons learned how to use the new devices.
Den Boer had participating surgeons fill in questionnaires. The surgeons reported that the operations were as efficient and routine as with surgical nurses, but that they actually preferred using the instrumental positioners because the surgeons could then operate the laparoscopes themselves.
Den Boer hopes her research will result in more attention being given to teaching surgeons how to use surgical instrument positioners. “Surgeons learn by practising on patients. I don’t approve of that. After all, pilots practise first in a flight simulator.”
Comments are closed.