Abstract: Objectives: To develop a General Anesthesia Prone Position Surgical Checklist (GAPPSC) for circulating nurses and evaluate its effectiveness. Methods: The GAPPSC were established according to the WHO model using evidence-based methods. Through analysis of literature reviews and evidence evaluation, the draft checklist was designed. Then 10 experts of relative areas to operating room care were consulted by mails for two rounds using Delphi method about the second edition of GAPPSC. The final edition of GAPPSC was developed after a field test. Later a pilot test was launched to test its effectiveness. The formal study was conducted between May and October 2017 to finally compare the data collected before and after the application of the checklist. Results: A checklist with 22 necessary items to be checked at 4 pause points was developed.The study showed a significant 22.73% of increase in the total implementation rate of the 22 items on the checklist after its implementation. Besides, the implementation rates of 10 items of the checklist also increased significantly (P<0.05). Conclusion: The GAPPSC transferred from 10 clinical practice guidelines is a useful tool for increasing the delivery of essential nursing practices for patients after general anesthesia in the prone position. Meanwhile, it can also help circulating nurses to provide safe, standardized and evidence-based nursing practices and consequently improve patient safety, which indicates that GAPPSC is a practical tool to help facilitate basic nursing practices.

Key words: checklist; prone position; general anesthesia surgery; patient safety; surgical position