Working With Your Body in the Operating Room. The Case of Operating Room Nurses (RCIBO) (RCIBO)

Working With Your Body in the Operating Room. The Case of Operating Room Nurses

The undocumented observation, repeatedly observed in the operating rooms, of discomfort, including fainting, among medical and paramedical novices working in contact with surgical breaches raises questions about the mechanisms put in place to cope with what seems initially unimaginable. Indeed, accounts in the social sciences show that the surgical opening of a living person is, in some ways, a transgressive act, forbidden outside the operating room. By spilling blood, it induces a 'symbolic disorder' described by Mary Douglas, that is contained through ritualized practices, predispositions towards objectification, and injunctions to control affects. The use of surgical drapes allows for the partial erasure of the person being operated on, who is no longer seen as a subject, but as an object of care - a dehumanized body or 'image-object' described by Amandine Klipfel. It is possible that ORNs are gradually adapting to negotiate the reconfiguration of bodies in the operating room, the transgression inherent in the surgical opening of a living person, and the personal resonance this may have for them. The investigator questions the specificities of their profession and their physical, emotional, and cognitive relationships following the initial shock of confronting open bodies. Is it possible to grow accustomed to or adapt to open bodies to the point of no longer experiencing difficulties related to what was once unthinkable? The investigator aims to understand what becomes of these initially unrepresentable experiences and roles ORNs have in redefining the bodies present - the processes of objectification and rehumanization of patients in the operating rooms. This doctoral study grasps the cognitive and imaginary constructions they experience in France and Canada.

Study Overview

• Status: Enrolling by invitation
• Conditions: Nurses; Operating Rooms

• Study Type: Observational
• Enrollment (Estimated): 60

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• France
  • Brest, France, 29609
    • CHU Brest

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: Adult; Older Adult
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

• Sampling Method: Non-Probability Sample

Study Population

Operating room nurses

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• operating room nurses
• Student nurses and operating room nurses
• Supervisors
• Doctors, interns and externs
• Surgeons
• Midwives and midwifery students
• Hospital cleaning staff
• Nursing assistants
• Biomedical staff

Exclusion Criteria:

• People not involved in surgical operations
• People refusing to take part in the study

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Time Frame
References to emotions in interviews	From enrollment to the end of treatment at 1 year

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Time Frame
Identification of body postures, verbal and non-verbal communication, reactions and interactions of professionals during observations in the operating rooms	From enrollment to the end of treatment at 1 year

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: University Hospital, Brest

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): January 27, 2025
• Primary Completion (Estimated): November 30, 2028
• Study Completion (Estimated): November 30, 2028

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: February 10, 2025
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: April 14, 2025
• First Posted (Actual): April 22, 2025

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): April 22, 2025
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: April 14, 2025
• Last Verified: April 1, 2025

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: surgery; operating room nurses; opened bodies
• Other Study ID Numbers: 29BRC24.0311 - RCIBO

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: YES
• IPD Plan Description: All collected data that underlie results in a publication
• IPD Sharing Time Frame: Data will be available beginning three years and ending fifteen years following the final study report completion
• IPD Sharing Access Criteria: Data access requests will be reviewed by the internal committee of Brest UH. Requestors will be required to sign and complete a data access agreement
• IPD Sharing Supporting Information Type: STUDY_PROTOCOL

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No