Perceived levels of satisfaction with the preoperative assessment service experienced by patients undergoing general anaesthesia in a day surgery setting

Abstract

If preoperative assessment is to be patient centred, enjoying high levels of patient satisfaction, attention to patients' individual needs must be a priority.

Including psychosocial factors in screening for surgery: A preliminary literature review from a social work perspective (Preprint)

“…That is, challenges such as poor psychological adjustment, depression, anxiety, perceived loss of control, reduced coping ability, or cognitive impairments, were variously linked with longer hospital stays, reduced response to treatment, poorer recovery, more complications, more treatments, more invasive interventions, greater pain, and higher readmission rates [13][14][15][16][17][18][19]. While the general indications from these publications reflect the potential importance of this topic, the specific nature of the links was not well defined in the literature reviewed.…”

“…It was also noted that surgery can take a psychological toll on families [22] and may have other social consequences, such as greater dependency on others [21]. Factors of social support, social wellbeing, past experiences, social vulnerability and consultation with family and extended networks, were all recognised as important factors affecting length of stay and outcomes [17,18,28].…”

“…Unfortunately in these settings nurses often have insufficient time to complete preadmission tasks, despite such screening requiring considerable time and communication [18]. Acknowledging the clear overlap between the focus of psychosocial screening and social work skills [5,28,32], it would appear that the staffing model for such screening warrants further consideration.…”

“…Interventions which were described in the reviewed studies addressed a number of issues including fearfulness, anxiety, stressors, general mood and related concerns [18,23,34]. The types of intervention described included, information provision and enhancing knowledge [16,34], providing psychological and social support [17,20,34], teaching and self-instruction approaches [23], as well as enhancing the link between the patient and doctor [18].…”

“…The types of intervention described included, information provision and enhancing knowledge [16,34], providing psychological and social support [17,20,34], teaching and self-instruction approaches [23], as well as enhancing the link between the patient and doctor [18]. Strategies employed included telephone-based [5,17], as well as face to face interventions [34].…”