Essay On Preoperative Communication

One of the major reasons that preoperative communication is so important is to support informed consent. The practitioner’s role in this varies between NHS trusts, but in all situations the patient’s right to a choice in their treatment is sacrosanct. All actions carried out on the patient need his or her consent; otherwise the patient could claim to have been assaulted. Patients usually give consent either by implication, for example when a patient agrees to receive a drug. However, some procedures are so dangerous, or the choices for the patient so complex, that it is necessary to record the act of consent. Most anaesthetic and surgical procedures fall into this category. The role of the practitioners is to ensure that the surgeon, anaesthetist

An anxious patient much less likely to voice his worries or share information about himself or herself than a relaxed patient. Most patients are not of course, relaxed about their forthcoming surgery. It is therefore, a challenge to practitioners to identify and overcome the patient’s normal reticence to share information that he or she can absorb. Noise, discomfort, high levels of activities or other distractions affecting the surrounding environment can also reduce the information a patient absorbs. Practitioners can employ various teaching strategies to maximize patient education. For examples, Schrecengost conducted a study to discover whether the use of humour in preoperative instruction affects patient’s recall of the

The results of this study were inconclusive; however, they implied that humour at worst was better than no education at all and potentially could improve it. Humourous teaching strategies may promote open, flexible communication and allow patients to ask questions they otherwise may not ask and hear instructions they otherwise may not hear. Despite being inconclusive, this study supports the argument that patient information handed over in an informal and accessible way perioperative practitioners may help this