AORN journal
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Surgery delays and cancellations are costly to hospitals and emotionally distressful to patients. At Sarasota (Fla) Memorial Hospital, staff members developed a critical pathway-the preanesthesia collaborative care track, called "the Track," to address problems associated with preparing patients for surgery. The track is designed to facilitate preoperative patient assessments and nursing interventions that achieve desirable patient outcomes and to enhance the delivery of quality health care to surgical patients. The RN anesthesia care coordinator of the Track assists in early patient-problem identification and ensures that appropriate clinical data are available for perioperative nurses, anesthesiologists, and surgeons to avoid last-minute delays and cancellations of scheduled surgical procedures.
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Survival rates are enhanced if severely injured trauma patients are admitted directly to the OR for resuscitation and surgical intervention. To increase the survivability and decrease the morbidity of trauma patients with penetrating trauma to the chest or abdomen, a hospital in La Jolla, Calif, developed a "direct to the OR" resuscitation program. This program substantially increased the survival rate of these trauma patients. Perioperative nurses respond to all major trauma situations and assist with surgical procedures completed in a trauma resuscitation room or in the OR.
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Comparative Study Clinical Trial Controlled Clinical Trial
Effect of music on ambulatory surgery patients' preoperative anxiety.
The authors investigated music as a method to reduce ambulatory surgery patients' preoperative anxiety. They assigned 42 patients to either an experimental or a control group and compared the patients' vital signs and self-reports of anxiety, which were measured using the state portion of the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory. ⋯ Differences in experimental and control group patients' blood pressure measurements and respiratory rates approached significance. The authors suggest that perioperative nurses offer music as a viable option to reduce anxiety in ambulatory surgery patients who believe music is a method of relaxation.