Surgical Team Members' User Evaluations on the Use of Safe Surgery ChecklistTR during Surgical Intervention

Aim: The Safe Surgery Checklist is a critical tool the World Health Organization developed to improve patient safety and reduce surgical errors. This study aimed to evaluate the opinions of surgical team members regarding using the Safe Surgery ChecklistTR during surgical intervention and to develop recommendations to improve their compliance. Method: This cross-sectional and descriptive study was conducted with 334 healthcare professionals, including 162 nurses and 172 anesthesia technicians, working in Istanbul between January 02, 2024, and March 31, 2024. Data were collected using the Safe Surgery ChecklistTR Implementation Perception Questionnaire developed by the researchers in line with the literature and consisted of 33 items evaluating various elements of the checklist. Statistical analyses, including reliability tests (Cronbach's alpha) and descriptive statistics, were performed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences 26 program. Results: The overall Cronbach's alpha value for the Safe Surgery ChecklistTR Implementation Perception Questionnaire was 0.966, indicating high reliability. Participants reported a mean score of 153.57±16.41, with a positive agreement rate of approximately 93%. The highest positive agreement was found for the item “Patient risk assessment should be performed” (98.8%) and the lowest agreement was found for confirming the necessity of prophylactic antibiotics (74.9%). Conclusion: The study's results revealed that although awareness of the Safe Surgery ChecklistTR was high among team members, adherence to the practice varied, especially among less experienced and less educated staff. This highlights the need for education and communication strategies to improve adherence to the Safe Surgery ChecklistTR and increase patient safety and the importance of its successful implementation.