Implementation of a surgical safety checklist in Brazil: cross-sectional study

Abstract

Objective: to identify the implementation process of the World Health Organization Surgical Safety Checklist in Brazilian hospitals. Methods: this is a cross-sectional study with 531 participants during a Congress of Perioperative Nursing, promoted by the Brazilian Association of Operating Room Nurses, Anesthetic Recovery and Material and Sterilization Center, in 2017. Results: among the nursing professionals included, 84.27% reported the checklist implementation in the workplace. Regarding daily application in the Sign-in stage, 79.65% of professionals confirmed patient identification with two indicators; in the Time-out stage, 51.36% of surgeries started regardless of confirmation of one of the items. In the Sign-out stage, 69.34% of professionals did not count or occasionally counted the surgical instruments and suture needles, and only 36.36% reviewed concerns about postoperative recovery. Conclusion: this study identified needs for improvements in applying the checklist in the Brazilian reality, to guarantee safer surgical procedures.