The Importance Of Preoperative Care

Preoperative care is the preparation and management of a patient before surgery. The goal of preoperative care is to reduce the fear associated with the unknown and decrease stress associated with surgery. This includes both physical and psychological preparation. The pre-operative phase begins when the decision to have surgery is made and ends when the patient is transferred to theatre. This is the time when both patients and parents are at their most vulnerable and scared. These fears can sometimes exacerbate symptoms of existing conditions and adversely affect the physiological state of the patient, prolonging recovery so it is vitally important to prepare them as well as possible for the situation in which they are about to find themselves. …show more content…
Nurses conduct pre-operative assessments and educate children and parents during their pre-op consultation. The preoperative nurse can provide the environment for calming, informative conversations that help both children and parents prepare for surgical procedures. The preoperative nurse's primary responsibility is to provide information and emotional support for patients and their family members, to ensure that all preoperative data have been accumulated, and to maintain patients' baseline hemodynamic statuses. Preparing a patient for anaesthesia requires an understanding of the patient’s pre-operative status, the nature of the surgery and the anaesthetic techniques required for surgery, as well as the risks that a particular patient may face during this …show more content…
The preoperative stage is the most psychologically challenging of the perioperative process. For the children, they know they will be put to sleep, but are unsure of when they will wake up, where they will be when they do and who will be with them. By the time they reach the hospital, the patient may have their stress and anxiety heightened due to unknown environment and unfamiliar staff. Most preparation strategies used by nurses are informal and focus on providing information about the procedure. Although research has been conducted on many types of preparation (eg. Using dolls, puppets, plays, books or videos), no one method is more effective than another. However, young children tend to respond better to play materials, and older children benefit from peer-modelling videos. Nurses must consider the child’s temperament, existing coping strategies, and previous experiences in individualizing the preparatory process. Children who are distractible and highly active, as well as those who are “slow to warm up” may need personalised sessions. It is important to prepare and educate these children as best one can as extreme anxiety during induction of anaesthesia is also associated with an increase of these postoperative negative behavioural changes. Are also huge psychological implications for parents in the preoperative