P
atient warming is the
practice where almost
nothing's uniform and
almost everything's
unique, where each surgical facility has its own set of
rules that determines who, when, where and how it warms. Maybe it's
forced-air warming for longer cases, warmed blankets for shorter
cases. Maybe you pre-warm certain patients in pre-op, warm all gener-
al anesthesia patients intraoperatively, but only warm regional anes-
thesia patients if they request it.
Clearly, how you prevent hypothermia is your call — just so long as
you do it. "Patients are more comfortable and we find it relieves some
D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 6 • O U T PA T I E N TS U R G E R Y. N E T • 5 1
Warming Trends
What are your rules for keeping patients normothermic?
Wes
Webster,
MSN,
RN,
CRNA
• PACU WARMTH Besides the comfort
and clinical benefits it bestows, there's
nothing
uniform about patient warming.
Dan Dunkin
Associate Editor