Pre-operative Nursing Care in Ambulatory Surgery : An Integrative Reviews

Abstract

        Ambulatory surgery is the surgery that patients can go back home within 24 hours after surgical operation. It is a standard of surgery in Europe and America. Nowadays, several institutes and hospitals in Thailand establish ambulatory surgery. The aim of this integrative review was to synthesize the knowledge of nursing activities in patient care, patient evaluation and preparation prior to ambulatory surgery. This can help in the development of better nursing activities for the benefit of patient care. By integrated literature reviewing of 24 articles according to Cooper, pre-operative nursing activities were (1) to assess the patients physical status before surgery according to existing evaluation guideline, (2) to prepare patients both physically and mentally by providing information on surgery and anesthesia, knowledge of self-care before and after surgery to reduce anxiety in several different methods. However, in practice, it was found that nurses had involved and took lesser role than they should. Therefore, the role of nurses in patient care and activities in preoperative of ambulatory surgery should be developed with regard to patients’ age, patients’ needs and context of the units.