Introduction: The operating room environment is a complex system with advanced technical equipment, which involves interdisciplinary teams of healthcare professionals. One of the complications or adverse events in patient care is retained surgical supplies and instruments. With surgical counting and supervision of dressing materials, needles and surgical instruments, the risk of retained supplies and instruments in a patient's body can be avoided. Purpose: The aim of the master thesis is to highlight the importance of theoretical familiarity of operating room nurses. The thesis also points out the need for development, awareness and acting according to the standards of surgical counting and supervision of dressing materials, needles and surgical instruments. Methods: In the theoretical part of the thesis, a descriptive method was used to review domestic and foreign professional and scientific literature. For data collection, the quantitative research method was adopted and a questionnaire from 2015 research titled Knowledge of surgical counting practices of operating room nurses in provincial hospitals in the Cape Metropole was used, for which prior consent was obtained. The questionnaires were sent to all employed operating room nurses from four major healthcare institutions in central Slovenia. Results: The research included 65 respondents, 55 of whom were women (85,94 %), 9 were men (14,06 %) and 1 person did not identify their gender. We have identified a statistically significant difference between our predicted proportion and the actual proportion of those whose instrument and material count is affected by poor communication (t = 55,4; p = 0,000). The majority of respondents would like to attend additional training on the prevention of retained materials and instruments (83,33 %, n = 50). More than half of the respondents stated that the general chaos during a surgery procedure affects their counting of instruments and supplies in the operating room. There were no statistically significant differences between hospitals regarding material counting in accordance with the standards for the prevention of retained instruments and supplies (t = 4,2; p = 0,122). Discussion and conclusion: In this research, we found that theoretical familiarity with surgical counting and supervision of dressing materials, needles and surgical instruments is important for the operating room nurses’ quality of work and thus for the patients’ safety. As operating room nurses want further training, investment into research and presentation of modern technologies for the prevention of improper counting of instruments and supplies are required.
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