The OR Black Box Nursing Education Curriculum: Using Video Review to Optimize Patient Safety

The operating room (OR) is a high-stress environment where effective teamwork across multiple disciplines is crucial for optimal patient care. Despite the prevalence of surgical errors—estimated at 50% occurring within the OR, with a significant portion deemed preventable—there is a reactive culture focused on addressing mistakes rather than proactively improving safety and quality. The stigma surrounding errors leads to a lack of open communication, making it difficult for healthcare providers to learn from incidents. Current methods to analyze errors mainly involve retrospective reviews, which suffer from inconsistencies and reluctance among staff to discuss mistakes due to fear of repercussions.

To address these challenges, innovative approaches such as audio and video recording have been proposed to enhance education and quality improvement in the OR. While these technologies have been beneficial in other clinical areas, their application in perioperative nursing education has been limited. This article explores how a team at a tertiary care academic hospital implemented these recording techniques to foster learning and improve patient safety, aiming to create a more transparent and proactive culture within the OR.