What Surgical Conscience Means

In practice

The textbook's definition has three parts, and each one can be practised. First, doubt counts. If you are not sure an item is still sterile, you treat it as contaminated and replace it. Second, you speak up. If you broke technique, or think a colleague did, you say so at once, plainly and without accusation. Third, the rule holds when no one is watching. A glove that brushed an unsterile surface at the end of a long night is changed exactly as it would be at the start of a busy morning. Each part exists to prevent a surgical site infection.