Your People and Teams 
Walk into any of your ORs during a total joint procedure tomorrow morning and look around the table. The surgeon is licensed, credentialed, and privileged. There’s a defined list of what they may do in your facility, anchored to verified qualifications. Your anesthesia providers, nurses, and surgical technologists practice under…
We recently spoke with Amanda Heitman, BSN, RN, CNOR, perioperative educational consultant and founder with Periop Anew, about the latest in perioperative staff safety. At Periop Leader Week 2026, she delivered a powerful 30-minute presentation on the topic. (To find out more about Ms. Heitman, scroll to the bottom of…
We had some great poster submissions for Periop Leader Week 2026. Topping off the lineup was a contribution from Sara Beland, MHA, the first-prize winner of our Poster Awards. Ms. Beland, associate vice president of perioperative services at UNC Medical Center, presented her poster Utilizing Microsoft Teams for Perioperative Incident…
It's 12:30 pm, and your scrub nurse has been on her feet for five hours. The patient is ready to be moved. As the slide sheet is pulled, you notice her wince, and make a mental note to check in when there’s a moment. It’s a familiar scene. OR nurses…
How can strong partnerships between educators and nurses strengthen professional development? Plenty, says Consulting Nurse Educator Carmen Sincerbeaux, MA, BSN, RN, CNOR, NPD-BC. During their session at Periop Leader Week 2026, “Don’t go it alone: How and why you should partner with your NPD/Educator to solve problems and develop staff,”…
If you’ve been receiving our Periop Pulse newsletter over the last year, you know we’ve been landing in your inbox every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday morning with breaking news items from around the industry. Starting now, we’ve reduced the frequency to once a week: every Tuesday morning. The reason for…
As a perioperative leader, have you ever considered… a perioperative mascot? Because this is something that exists in Australia. A cuddly little stuffed bear named Sir Stitches is now an employee of sorts with The Government of Western Australia’s WA Country Health Service. The tiny mascot is traveling to facilities…
This month’s Periop Leader Week included programming intended to foster cross-functional communication and collaboration between OR teams and sterile processing departments (SPDs), as well as between infection preventionists and SPDs. Conversations with Periop Leader Week speakers and attendees who work in sterile processing revealed a unanimous desire for SPD to…
What are we having for dinner? Which TV show should we watch? Who’s going to walk the dog? And, oh yeah, is AI really the best framework for covering data and workflow in the OR? Everyone attending Periop Leader Week knows that life on the front lines of surgery can…
An unprecedented new study published in the Journal of the American College of Surgeons maps the surgeon supply across 12 surgical specialties, U.S. county by U.S. county, with a companion interactive data visualization available to the public. Highlights from the study, which was a collaborative effort between the American College…
