Theatre Protocols a Cross Sectional Analysis of Understanding and Implementation of Theatre Protocols among House Officer of Private and Public Medical Colleges

Objectives To evaluate the understanding of theatre protocols among house officers and their implementation and to compare between public and private medical institutions. METHODOLGY: It was a cross-sectional study carried out in 11 different medical institutes and teaching hospitals of Lahore.7 of them were public medical institute and 4 were private. The population was house officers who have done or are currently doing their surgical rotation. Out of which we took sample of 100 subjects via convenient random sampling. An anonymous structured questionnaire was used. The understanding of theatre protocols was assessed by following parameters: ways of teaching theatre protocols, surgeon’s interest in explaining and carrying out different protocols, proper scrubbing, gloving and gowning observed, aseptic measures being taught, sterilization techniques learnt and safety check list application. Data analysis was done on SPSS software. RESULTS: 51% of the population were females and 49% were males.80% house officers belonged to a public sector hospital and 20% belonged to private hospitals.30% were from general surgery.30% were from gynae.40% include surgical sub-specialties including E.N.T eye orthopedics and urology.70% considered that theatre protocols include just sterilization and aseptic measures. While only 9% know the protocol details. Only 7% strongly agreed that theatre protocols were taught in final year clinical rotation.35% of the participants agreed that aseptic measures are strictly followed in their respective OR. 41% agreed that they were taught how aseptic measure are taken and observed in OR. 33% agreed that they have learnt sterilization during OR.47% agreed that they were taught proper gloving and gowning in OR. 49% agreed that they were taught standardized scrubbing procedure during theatre clinical rotation. Only 42% agreed that they knew proper safety check list procedure . CONCLUSION: The understanding and implementation of theatre protocols is not up to the international standard criteria both in public and private sector but protocols are less observed and taught among house officers from private hospitals.