Determine the knowledge, practices, and barriers of surgical items counting among perioperative teams in three public hospitals

The study aimed to determine the knowledge, practices, and barriers of surgical item counting among the perioperative team in public hospitals. A non-experimental, quantitative, descriptive design was used. The setting was the operating theatres of three hospitals in the Gauteng Province, South Africa. The data were collected through the use of a standardized, validated questionnaire. Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) statistics version 28 software was used to perform the analysis with the assistance of a biostatistician. The data are presented as descriptive statistics. The perioperative team in three selected hospitals in the Gauteng Province working in operating theatres displayed different knowledge, practices, and barriers regarding the counting of surgical items.