Compliance with surgical smoke evacuation guidelines: implications for practice

Surgical smoke presents a serious health hazard, but perioperative nurses' compliance with smoke evacuation recommendations is not consistent. I investigated key indicators for compliance with electrosurgical smoke evacuation recommendations based on nurses' individual innovativeness characteristics, perceptions of the attributes of smoke evacuation recommendations, and organizational innovativeness characteristics. The study findings provide implications for improving nurses' compliance with smoke evacuation recommendations. Individual innovativeness characteristics, including nurses' knowledge and training, were most strongly linked to smoke evacuation compliance. The key indicators that promote surgical smoke evacuation can provide direction to guide the content of education programs and help identify the personnel and settings that are most in need of this information. Barriers to compliance included lack of equipment, physician resistance, noise, and staff member complacency. Vendor demonstrations on the ease of smoke evacuation device use can show nurses that smoke evacuation is compatible with nursing practice. Facility leaders should provide smoke evacuation policies that are easy to understand and should enforce these policies.