ANESTHESIA ALERT
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O U T P AT I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E O N L I N E | O C T O B E R 2 0 1 4
Act interested, make eye contact and gestures.
Patients want to be
treated as if they're the No. 1 person on your mind. You can't
establish this bond if you're constantly looking away, writing while
you talk or acting as if you have 3 more patients to see and want to
get it over with. Nothing reduces anxiety or instills confidence more
in patients than a person who is sincerely talking to them, looking
them in the eye and not simultaneously writing on the pre-op evalua-
tion sheet. A brief moment of silence between conversation and writ-
ing serves both the patient and the provider well.
Avoid ghastly graphics.
Perhaps the worst pre-operative descrip-
tion I've heard was given at a hospital to a patient who was
scheduled for a thoracoscopic procedure. The anesthesiologist told
the patient he would be given medicine to paralyze his reflexes so he
wouldn't gag and choke when the endotracheal tube was inserted.
And as if that weren't bad enough, he was told that if the surgery
became more involved than anticipated, the tube would be left in and
he would be given sedatives if he felt its presence and coughed!
The entire description could have been as simple as: "You'll be anes-
thetized, and after you're completely asleep, we'll insert a tube to help
you breathe. It will be removed when the procedure is over and all of
your reflexes are back, but still sedated enough not to have discom-
fort. On occasion, the tube may be left in for a short period of time
after the procedure, but you'll be kept very comfortable until it's
removed."
Anesthesia care does not end when the patient leaves the procedure
room.
Let the patient know that the pre-op visit is only a small
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