Strategies to Improve Perioperative Communication During the COVID-19 Pandemic

The coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic has led to a variety of challenges that have necessitated process changes in perioperative environments. Communication failures are a cause of surgical adverse events, and the pandemic has created additional communication concerns. Measures to prevent disease transmission, such as social distancing and wearing personal protective equipment, may inhibit communication. Relational dynamics and the types of collaboration that perioperative health care professionals exhibit can affect the quality of communication. The use of checklists during procedures and the hand-over process may enhance communication content. Health care professionals can use communication tools, such as portable and fixed communication devices, an electronic display of the OR schedule, cyber-physical systems, and short message service (ie, text messages) to facilitate information sharing. The concepts presented in this article should help perioperative nurses to improve communication during and after the pandemic.