Impact of ENT resource nurses in improving operating room efficiency

Area of Science:

• Surgical efficiency and operating room (OR) management.
• Healthcare systems and nursing specialization.

Background:

• Operating room (OR) efficiency is crucial for surgical outcomes and is influenced by team composition and workplace dynamics.
• Limited research exists on the impact of surgical nursing staff specialization on OR efficiency.
• This study investigates the effect of Ear, Nose, and Throat (ENT) trained OR resource nurses on operative time efficiency during ENT procedures.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the impact of specialized ENT OR nursing staff on operating time efficiency.
• To determine if ENT-trained nurses improve efficiency in ENT surgeries compared to general OR nurses.

Main Methods:

• Retrospective review of 573 ENT surgery cases involving 4 surgeons.
• Comparison between 242 cases with ENT OR nursing staff and 331 cases with non-ENT OR nursing staff.
• Analysis of requested operative times (ROT) and true operative times (TOT) to measure efficiency (TOT - ROT).

Main Results:

• Cases with ROT < 30 minutes were completed 3.34 minutes faster with ENT nurses versus 2.15 minutes longer with non-ENT staff.
• Cases with ROT > 30 minutes were completed 10.85 minutes faster with ENT nurses compared to 6.53 minutes longer with non-ENT staff.
• ENT-trained nurses demonstrated a significant positive impact on reducing operative times across different procedure lengths.

Conclusions:

• Specialized ENT resource nurses enhance operating room (OR) efficiency for both short (<30 min) and long (>30 min) ENT procedures.
• The most substantial efficiency gains were observed in procedures exceeding 30 minutes.
• Employing specialized ENT nursing staff optimizes efficiency in common ENT surgical cases.