What Is the Operating Room Laboratory? / What Is Its Purpose?
The Üsküdar University Operating Room Laboratory is an advanced simulation center designed to the standards of a real hospital operating room, enabling students in the Operating Room Services program to prepare flawlessly for surgical procedures.
- Primary Objective: To ensure that students become thoroughly familiar with all equipment, technology, and surgical instruments used in the operating room, and to help them develop the reflexes necessary to apply sterilization, disinfection, and patient safety protocols at a professional level.
- Academic Contribution: The laboratory enables operating room technicians—one of the most critical members of the surgical team—to learn their preoperative, intraoperative, and postoperative duties and responsibilities based on the zero-error principle. Theoretical knowledge of surgical conditions and anatomy is transformed into practical operational skills in this field.
Equipment and Technical Infrastructure in the Laboratory
The laboratory infrastructure includes all of the electromechanical and medical devices found in the operating rooms of a modern hospital. Within the framework of Key Features, the laboratory equipment includes the following:
- Operating Table and Surgical Lights (Skeletal Lighting Systems): A multifunctional operating table that allows the patient to be positioned appropriately according to the type of surgery, and shadow-free surgical lights with high illumination capacity.
- Anesthesia Machine and Ventilator Simulator: Systems that simulate artificial respiration and gas monitoring during surgery, helping surgical technicians become more familiar with the equipment.
- Surgical Instrument Sets: Mechanical cutting, grasping, dissecting, and suturing instruments comprising thousands of pieces for various specialties such as general surgery, orthopedics, obstetrics and gynecology, and cardiovascular surgery.
- Electrosurgical Unit: A high-frequency current device used in surgical procedures to cut tissue and stop bleeding (coagulation).
- Sterilization and Packaging Units: Units where the stages of washing, disinfecting, packaging, and sterilization of surgical instruments via autoclave (pressurized steam) are carried out exactly as required.
- Patient Monitors: Monitoring screens that enable the continuous tracking of a patient’s vital signs (ECG, oxygen saturation, blood pressure, pulse) throughout the operation.
Research Areas and Application Areas
The hands-on training conducted in the laboratory covers the entire operational cycle, from a patient’s entry into the operating room to their exit:
- Sterile and Non-Sterile Area Management: Scrubbing techniques within the operating room, rules for putting on and removing sterile gowns and gloves, and protocols for maintaining the sterile field.
- Surgical Table and Instrument Tray Preparation: Arranging surgical instruments on the table in a specific hierarchy based on the type of procedure, counting them, and preparing them for use.
- Patient Positioning and Draping: Placing the patient in the correct anatomical position (supine, prone, lateral, etc.) based on the surgical site and applying sterile draping techniques.
- Surgical Assistance During the Operation: Practices in which the surgical technician works in sync with the operating surgeon to hand the correct instrument at the right time without compromising sterility (scrub technician techniques).
Contributions to Students and the Industry
The Operating Room Laboratory minimizes the time it takes for students to adapt to the hospital environment after graduation, thereby providing the industry with highly qualified specialists.
- Crisis and Stress Management: Through simulated emergency scenarios (such as power outages, equipment malfunctions, or sudden bleeding), students develop the ability to remain calm and find quick solutions.
- Wide Range of Employment Opportunities: Graduates who have mastered the equipment and sterilization protocols in this lab can quickly begin working as “Operating Room Technicians” in public hospitals, private hospitals, university hospitals, in vitro fertilization (IVF) centers, eye surgery clinics, and central sterilization units (CSU).
