The nurse as the laser safety officer

Nurses have the perioperative responsibility for patient care, this is to include safe practice for patients having laser therapy. The perioperative role was defined by the Association of Operating Room Nurses as “nursing activities performed by professional operating room nurses during the preoperative, intraoperative, and postoperative phases of the patient’s surgical experience. Operating room nurses assume the perioperative role at a beginning level dependent on their expertise and competency to practice. As they gain knowledge and skills, they progress on a continuum to an advanced level of practice.” With the introduction of lasers into the scope of nursing practice, in many different areas of nursing, we need to define the expanded role of nurses as technology proliferates in medicine and surgery.