Fast Facts for the Operating Room Nurse, Third Edition

Theresa Criscitelli, EdD, RN, CNOR, is a doctorally prepared nurse who has spent 26 years working in the operating room. Her career began as a certified surgical technologist when she learned to scrub in on an array of surgical specialties, including neurosurgery, orthopedics, and cardiothoracic open-heart surgery. She completed her nursing degree in order to care for surgical patients as their advocate and to be able to obtain other positions in the perioperative area that could help influence patient outcomes. She has held numerous positions in the perioperative setting as a registered nurse, including staff nurse, assistant nurse manager, nurse educator, director of perioperative education, and assistant director of professional nursing practice and education. Dr. Criscitelli is currently assistant vice president of administration and oversees the perioperative and procedural services at New York University (NYU) Winthrop Hospital, Mineola, New York. She also serves as adjunct nursing professor at Adelphi University, Garden City, New York, and was a clinical instructor in the surgical technology program at Nassau Community College, Garden City, New York. She also collaborates with a research team at NYU Winthrop Hospital.Her love for the perioperative field does not cease at the end of the workday. She has published numerous articles in journals and has conducted research on the operating room that has been presented internationally. She oversees an operating room fellowship program and helped establish an academic-service partnership at a local university to provide a capstone experience in the operating room for undergraduate nursing students during their senior year. Engaging new nurses in the perioperative setting is her aspiration.

Section I: Personal and Patient Preparation
Chapter 1: Surgical Attire
Chapter 2: Preoperative Considerations
Chapter 3: Patient Positioning
Chapter 4: Surgical Skin Preparation
Chapter 5: Draping the Patient for Surgery
Section II: Environment and Processing Considerations
Chapter 6: Operating Room Environment Requirements
Chapter 7: Sterile Technique
Chapter 8: Sterilization and Central Processing
Chapter 9: Surgical Supplies
Section III: Surgical Basics
Chapter 10: Basic Surgical Procedures
Chapter 11: Surgical Instrumentation
Chapter 12: Electrosurgery
Chapter 13: Surgical Energy and Stapling Devices
Chapter 14: Surgical Dressings
Section IV: Additional Operating Room Considerations
Chapter 15: Medications
Chapter 16: Anesthesia
Chapter 17: Complications and Emergencies in the Operating Room
Chapter 18: Emergency Preparedness for Disaster
Chapter 19: Legal Aspects of Operating Room Practice
Chapter 20: Lifelong Learning