Work stress doesn’t come only from long days and hard cases in the operating room. It also comes from the invisible rules a team lives by: who gets heard, how conflicts get handled, what “efficiency” really means, and whether anyone feels safe enough to speak up. We take on operating room culture change through the lens of pro-social behavior and explain why small, voluntary actions like cooperation, gratitude, and direct support can translate into lower burnout, clearer communication, and stronger patient safety.

We walk through Elinor Ostrom’s Nobel Prize winning core design principles for effective group collaboration and translate them into plain-language behaviors that OR team can actually use: shared purpose, fair decision-making, transparency, fast conflict resolution, and real accountability for helpful and unhelpful conduct. Then we pressure-test those principles against a clinical vignette where production pressure, hierarchy, and staffing strain pull clinicians away from the shared goal of safe, timely perioperative care and just having a nice day at work with colleagues.

You’ll also hear from author Ramona Houmanfar on burnout measurement and psychological flexibility, plus insights from Mary Fearon on why interdisciplinary partnership matters for sustainable change. We close with Acceptance and Commitment Training (ACT) and the ACT matrix as a practical tool to notice counterproductive patterns, choose value-aligned actions, and build an OR environment where efficiency and well-being can finally support each other.

Subscribe, share with a colleague who’s feeling the pressure, and leave a review so more clinicians can find the show.

For show notes & transcript, visit our episode page at apsf.org: https://www.apsf.org/podcast/301-pro-social-operating-rooms/

© 2026, The Anesthesia Patient Safety Foundation

The fastest way to make an operating room feel unsafe isn’t a broken monitor, it’s a team that stops acting like a team. We dig into pro-social behavior: the small, voluntary actions that support other people and the group, including kindness, cooperation, and gratitude, and why these behaviors can lower cognitive load, strengthen communication, and improve anesthesia patient safety when the schedule gets tight and the stakes are high.

We share highlights from the February 2026 APSF Newsletter feature “Reduce Burnout, Improve Safety and Efficiency: Consider Pro-Social Behavior,” with insights from APSF leader Jeffrey Feldman. He connects persistent preventable harm and rising clinician burnout to the day-to-day culture in perioperative care, where interactions can become impersonal and inconsistent under production pressure. A vivid OR scenario brings it to life: a difficult airway, staffing constraints, unfamiliar teammates, and the clock driving tension instead of coordination.

We also hear from Caoimhe Duffy, whose work in human factors and teamwork focuses on the “everyday actions” that keep patients safe before harm occurs. Her goal is practical: make positive behaviors more visible, more measurable, and easier to teach so teams can improve clinician well-being and patient safety at the same time. We close with a teaser for what’s next, including Elinor Ostrom's Nobel Prize-winning framework for collaboration and how it could offer an out-of-the-box model for building stronger perioperative teams.

Subscribe so you don’t miss part two, share this with a colleague who’s feeling the pressure, and leave a review to help more clinicians find the show.

For show notes & transcript, visit our episode page at apsf.org: https://www.apsf.org/podcast/300-pro-social-teams-safer-faster-kinder/

© 2026, The Anesthesia Patient Safety Foundation

Cannabis has gone mainstream, but perioperative risk has not improved. THC products are far more potent than they were decades ago, emergency room visits are climbing, and many patients still walk into surgery thinking that it’s safe. We want anesthesia professionals to have a clearer, evidence-informed way to think about cannabis and anesthesia before the next case.

We open the latest APSF newsletter feature article, “Cannabis and Anesthesia,” and bring in author Trisha Meyer to frame why this topic matters now. Together, we walk through the pharmacology that shows up at the bedside: THC vs CBD, CB1 and CB2 receptors, the endocannabinoid system, and how route of use changes onset and duration. Then we get practical about drug-drug interactions and highlight a free interaction-checking resource you can use in real time.

From there, we map cannabis use across the perioperative timeline. Preop means asking better questions and documenting details like product type, dose, frequency, last use, and withdrawal symptoms, plus knowing when intoxication should delay elective surgery and when cardiac risk may need more workup. Intraop means expecting possible higher propofol and sedative requirements, watching for cardiovascular instability, and preparing for airway hyperreactivity and bronchospasm in inhaled users. Postop means planning for higher pain needs, using multimodal analgesia, and recognizing withdrawal, hypothermia, and shivering patterns that can surprise teams.

If you care about perioperative patient safety, listen, share this with a colleague, and subscribe so you don’t miss what’s next.

For show notes & transcript, visit our episode page at apsf.org: https://www.apsf.org/podcast/299-cannabis-and-anesthesia/

© 2026, The Anesthesia Patient Safety Foundation