Experience of perioperative nurses regarding preoperative patients nurse visits in a selected private hospital

Abstract

Background: The surgical team members, particularly perioperative nurses do preoperative visits to all patients undergoing elective surgical procedures a day before the procedure to decrease anxiety and stress as guided by policies and acts governing the health care profession. The purpose of this study was to explore and describe perioperative nurses’ experiences regarding preoperative patients' nurse visits in a selected semi urban settlement private hospital. Objective: To explore and describe perioperative nurses' experiences regarding preoperative patients' nurse visits in a private hospital. Method: A qualitative explorative, descriptive, and contextual approach was used to explore and describe perioperative nurses' experiences regarding preoperative patients’ nurse visits. A purposive sampling was used to sample 12 perioperative nurses from a selected private hospital. The researcher used an unstructured individual interview to gather data and content analysis steps to analyse data. Findings: The findings show five main themes and fourteen sub-themes. The main themes are positive experiences of preoperative visits, challenging experiences of preoperative visits, preoperative visits policy, strategies to ensure preoperative visits and recommendations. Conclusion: The study revealed that despite perioperative nurses knowing the benefits of preoperative patients’-nurse visits, the practice is minimally used. The recommendations made from the study include employment of more staff, implementation of virtual visits and proper planning.