ABSTRACT
Situation awareness is remaining alert in order to maintain presence of mind during an operative procedure. In other words, it is a mental state in which you are fully aware of your actions and their effects and have a plan if you need to make changes in your actions. If we think about professionals who need to be extremely vigilant about their surroundings while carrying out their work, we can’t think of anybody other than soldiers. In the battlefield, unless soldiers remain fully alert, it may cost them their lives. No wonder the concept of situation awareness was first introduced in the military. Having considered the concept and its application, one can appreciate that it is also valid in the operating theatre. Due to lack of situation awareness, soldiers have lost their lives, and patients have lost their lives when surgeons overlooked it in an operating room. Soldiers are supposed to be aware of the battlefield and the enemy position before the enemy becomes aware of theirs. Surgeons need to maintain awareness of the operative field and the likely consequences of their actions before a disaster strikes. Thus it involves keeping an eye on the operative field, especially on crucial anatomical structures, finding out if there is any change in respect of physiology or pathology and predicting immediate steps to be taken.
