Day surgery nurses' selection of patient preoperative information

Abstract

Aims and objectives. To determine selection and delivery of preoperative verbal information deemed important by nurses to relay to patients immediately prior to day surgery. Background. Elective day-case surgery is expanding, patient turnover is high and nurse-patient contact limited. In the brief time-frame available, nurses must select and precisely deliver information to patients, provide answers to questions and gain compliance to ensure a sustained, co-ordinated patient throughput. Concise information selection is therefore necessary especially given continued day surgery expansion. Study design. Electronic questionnaire. Methods. A survey investigating nurses' choice of patient information prior to surgery was distributed throughout the UK via email addresses listed on the British Association of Day Surgery member's website (January 2015-April 2015. Results. Participants were requested to undertake the survey within 2-3 weeks, with 137 participants completing the survey giving a 44% response rate. Verbal information deemed most important by nurses preoperatively was checking fasting time, information about procedure/operation, checking medication, ensuring presence of medical records/test results and concluding medical investigations checks. To a lesser extent was theatre environment information, procedure/operation start time and possible time to discharge. Significant differences were established between perceived importance of information and information delivery concerning the procedure/operation and anaesthesia details. Conclusion. Nurses working with competing demands and frequent interruptions, prioritised patient safety information. Although providing technical details during time-limited encounters, efforts were made to individualise provision. A more formal plan of verbal information provision could help ease nurses' cognitive workload and enhance patient satisfaction. Relevance to clinical practice. This study provides evidence that verbal information provided immediately prior to day surgery may vary with experience. Nurse educators and managers may need to provide greater guidance for such complex care settings as delivery of increasingly technical details during brief encounters is gaining increasing priority.Key words: adult nursing, day surgery, patient information, preoperative What does this paper contribute to the wider global clinical community?• Findings suggest nurses working with competing demands and frequent interruptions, prioritised verbal information concerning checking fasting time, provision of information about the procedure/operation, checking medication taken (required for co-morbidities), ensuring the presence of medical records/test results and medical checks completed.• Conveyed to a lesser extent were issues concerning the theatre environment, procedure/operation start time and possible discharge time.• Preoperative information regarding the procedure/operation and anaesthesia revealed significant differences between the perceived importance and actual delivery. Deliver...

<p>Testing Measurement Properties of the Norwegian Version of Electronic Health Literacy Scale (eHEALS) in a Group of Day Surgery Patients</p>

“…Besides the incentives to increase efficiency and reduce costs associated with expensive hospital stays, day surgery has been shown to prevent postoperative complications as a result of hospitalization, and this form of treatment is often the patients' own preference. 1,2 Day surgery is found to enhance patient satisfaction and have less impacts on their families' daily life and routines. 3 Patients undergoing day surgery are normally discharged from the hospital on the same day after the operation.…”

Patient's Experiences and Difficulties at Home Following Day Surgery

“…Previous research has reported that the relatively short time from the admission to undergo outpatient surgery to their discharge is a factor that restricts the assessment of patients by nurses in the pre-surgery period, the information of patients and their families before the operation, their monitoring in the postsurgery period and providing them care in line with their needs and monitoring the problems arising in the post-surgery period. 1,5,18,19 It is thought that such a situation comes into the picture due to nurses' negligence to meet their responsibilities with respect to training, a negligence probably arising from the increased workload. There is also a shortage of nurses and nurses' workload is high in the hospital where the research was conducted.…”

“…4,6,10 If, however, the process is not effectively planned, outpatient surgery can cause several problems, as a result of which patients can experience some difficulties. 5,7,10,11 Of the various problems that might arise in outpatient surgery, the most prominent are the need for sufficient number of personnel with experience, the short span of time nurses allocate to patients in the post-surgery period, the need for an efficient training for the period after discharge, but, on the other hand, insufficient time available for such a training, lack of insufficient time for the assessment of complications that might come into the picture in the post-surgery period, making it impossible to monitor the complications after the discharge and the need for a caregiver in the first 24-48 hours. 2,3,12 Patients can have difficulty in coping with the problems they experience at home after their discharge.…”

<p>A cross-sectional study to assess the difference in perception of day surgery information between patients and medical staff in China</p>

“…The first part asks for general information of the patients and medical staff. The second part is a preoperative teaching questionnaire (PTQ) 9. Participants were asked to rate accurately what day surgery information they perceived as important on a five-point Likert-type scale that includes ratings from 5 (very important) to 1 (not important).…”