Investigation of Preventive Practices for Surgical Fires and Burns in the Operating Rooms of Four Tertiary Hospitals

Aim: The present study aimed to investigate surgical fires as well as the precautions taken in the prevention of fire in four training and research hospitals in the Western Black Sea Region and Eastern Marmara Region.

Method: The descriptive study was conducted with the participation of 148 nurses working in operating rooms. A questionnaire structured by the researchers was used as the data collection tool. The data was analyzed using the statistical program SPSS 21.0. Statistical comparisons were made using Kruskall Wallis, Mann Whitney U, Student t, Pearson Correlation and Chi-square tests. The confidence interval was predetermined to be <0.05.

Results: Of the nurses, the mean age was 35.00±5.88 years. Only one of the nurses had dealt with a surgical fire, but nearly half of the nurses (46.3%) referenced burns which their patients were exposed to during surgery. Regarding the prevalence of burns, 86.4% of the nurses who had faced burns defined it as a very rare situation.The mean score that the nurses obtained from the list of measures taken for the prevention of surgical fire and burns was 51.45±16.06 (min.-max.: 20-88) and their knowledge was determined to be moderate.

Conclusions: The present study determined that most operating room nurses take some precautions for fire safety, but these are insufficient and lacking.