Attitudes of Surgical Teams Towards Using Safe Surgery Practices and Factors Associated with Its Implementation.

Background: In recent years, there have been significant advancements in the field of patient safety, particularly in high-risk environments such as operating rooms. The importance of safety in surgical theaters cannot be overstated, as it directly impacts patient outcomes and satisfaction. With increasing morbidity and mortality rates, as well as the ever-evolving nature of surgical procedures, there is a growing emphasis on implementing safety measures to ensure the safety of patients and the success of surgical interventions. The adoption of the surgical safety checklist is a pivotal step towards achieving safer surgery, and understanding the attitudes and factors that influence its implementation is crucial. By conducting this study, valuable insights can be gained, leading to interventions and improvements in safe operating practices, ultimately enhancing patient outcomes in surgical settings. Aim: Identify attitudes of surgical teams towards using safe surgery practices and factors associated with its Implementation. Research design: A descriptive exploratory research design was used to conduct this study. Settings: The study was conducted in all operating rooms of Alexandria Main University Hospital, Egypt. Subjects: The subjects of the present study included a convenience sample of 157 surgeon, 83anesthetists, and 72 nurses. Tools: two tools were used to collect study data namely; Attitudes of Surgical Team toward Surgical Safety Checklist Questionnaire and Barriers and Facilitators of Surgical Safety Checklist Questionnaire. Results: This study showed that surgical team had positive attitudes toward the implementation of SSC with a mean score of (110.68± 11.74). The mean score of facilitating factors was (45.72±5.77). Among the facilitators, the highest score was for checklist related facilitators with a score of (3.92±0.85) and the lowest score was for the organizational facilitators with a score of (22.40±3.32). The overall mean score of barriers to Surgical Safety Checklist implementation (66.42±9.4l). The most important barrier to implement the checklist was the organizational barriers (14.86±2.51), while team barriers were the least important (10.03±2.51). Conclusion: The current study revealed that surgical team had moderate questionable attitude towards the implementation of SSC. Additionally, the current study found checklist related facilitators and team facilitators are the most important facilitators toward use of SSC. While, the organizational and system related barriers are the most reported barriers. Moreover, modifying SSC in a manner that remove ambiguity and redundancy of items to be fit with context of use as well as buffering organizational and system related barriers are helpful strategies to foster facilitate utilization of SSC in operating theatres at different settings. Recommendations: cultivating patient safety culture at operating theatres is a key toward incorporating SSC as routine manner during all surgical procedures. Making surgical verification using SSC as mandatory step before moving to other surgical steps is panacea toward optimizing SSC implementation at operating endeavours.