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One of the highly common surgical positions is supine. This approach involves the surgical team’s watchful eyes to oversee a patient that will lie on their back with their arms either tucked or untucked to provide direct anatomical and surgical exposure to any area from the head and neck to the anterior aspects of the lower legs and feet. Supine position may be requested for a myriad of surgical procedures including everything from a thyroid, chest, cardiac, general, urology, orthopedic, or podiatry procedure to name a few. Given the wealth of clinical indications for the supine position, intentional time must be afforded for the perioperative team to consider all areas of required surgical access, as well as the areas not exposed during the surgical intervention.

The annual Worldwide Pressure Injury Prevention Day is just around the corner on November 18, 2021.  Let’s not forget that perioperative pressure Injury prevention strategies decrease overall hospital acquired pressure injuries (HAPIs) in the non-reimbursable CMS “never event” category.  Awareness around perioperative pressure injuries and the focus on patient risk identification, including environmental and extrinsic risk factors, is gaining traction within the surgical and medical device community. As a result, skin injury prevention bundles, hospital policies, and safety strategies are being researched and recommended throughout the healthcare industry.

Hospital Acquired Pressure Injuries (HAPI, formally pressure ulcers) can result in a lifetime of pain, suffering and even possibly death for the patient. HAPI rates are reported to the National Database of Nursing Quality Indicators (NDNQI) which is the, “Only national, nursing quality measurement program that provides hospitals with unit-level performance comparison reports (NDNQI, 2010b, p. 2). Healthcare leadership can use the information provided by the NDNQI to establish organizational goals for improvement at the unit level and mark progress in improving patient care and the work environment.

“The primary function of a gerontology nurse is to collaborate with patients, the local community and families in order to deliver the highest possible quality of life to the elderly,” explains bestmasterofscienceinnursing.com, naming five specific characteristics needed for nurses to succeed in the field of gerontology, including:

• patience
• compassion
• attention to detail
• creativeness
• consistency

Managing heat and humidity in the summer is a priority for everyone; for older adult home healthcare patients, it’s a lifesaving necessity.

Every summer, healthinaging.org reports, nearly 200 Americans die of health problems caused by high heat and humidity; most are age 50 or older. Hot weather is more likely to cause health problems for older adults, the authors explain, for a variety of reasons, including:

• age-related body changes
• chronic health conditions
• side effects of medications