AORN Journal
Volume 81, Issue 5 , Pages 971-984, May 2005

Superstitions Among Perioperative Nurses

  • David L. Mandell, MD

      Affiliations

    • David L. Mandell, MD, FAAP, is a staff otolaryngologist, Department of Pediatric Otolaryngology, Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, and an assistant professor, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh.
    • ,
  • Margie L. Claypool, RN

      Affiliations

    • Margie L. Claypool, RN, BSN, CNOR, is a surgical specialty RN, VA Pittsburgh Health System, Pittsburgh.
    • ,
  • David J. Kay, MD

      Affiliations

    • David J. Kay, MD, MPH, FAAP, is a pediatric otolaryngologist in private practice at the Center for Pediatric ENT—Head and Neck Surgery, Boynton Beach, Fla.

ABSTRACT

•A DESCRIPTIVE STUDY was conducted using a mailed questionnaire to determine the prevalence of work-related superstitious among perioperative nurses.

•DATA ANALYSIS included the two-sample t test for continuous data and the two-sided Fisher's exact test for binary data.

•STUDY RESULTS indicate that although only 23% of respondents view themselves as “generally superstitious,” specific work-related superstitions are widespread. Belief in specific superstitions was not statistically related to age or number of years as a perioperative nurse.

•AN ANALYSIS of the literature on medical workplace superstitions helps to elucidate possible underlying explanations for the phenomenon of nursing superstitions. AORN J 81 (May 2005) 971–984.

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 Editor's note: STATA 8 is a registered trademark of STATA Corp, College Station, Tex.

PII: S0001-2092(06)60464-X

doi:10.1016/S0001-2092(06)60464-X

AORN Journal
Volume 81, Issue 5 , Pages 971-984, May 2005

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