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This version was published on March 1, 2008
Western Journal of Nursing Research, Vol. 30, No. 2, 259-277 (2008)
DOI: 10.1177/0193945907303006

Operating Theater Culture

Implications for Nurse Retention

Brigid M. Gillespie

Griffith University, Queensland, B.Gillespie{at}griffith.edu.au

Marianne Wallis

Griffith University, Queensland

Wendy Chaboyer

Griffith University, Queensland

Health service delivery in the operating theater is vulnerable to shortages because of the unique environment, postregistration training requirements, and the occupational subculture that characterizes social relations. The aim of this mini-ethnography is to explore characteristics of organizational culture of the operating theater and how this culture is communicated and sustained. The field setting is an eight-theater department in a major hospital in Queensland, Australia. Informants include nurses, orderlies, trainee and consultant surgeons, and anesthetists. Three themes related to primacy of knowledge and competence, social order, and situational control are important cultural indicators in this highly specialized milieu. The level to which members are able to assimilate and meet role expectations depends on the amount of knowledge and experience they possess. A lack of acceptance has the potential to affect members' willingness to continue working in the operating theater, and consequently, may contribute to existing nursing shortages in this specialty.

Key Words: mini-ethnography • personnel retention • knowledge • clinical competence • perioperative health service


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