Pre-registration student nurses' perceptions of the day surgery unit

An increasing number of complex surgical interventions are now taking place on a day case basis with some surgical specialities able to perform 80% of their elective surgery as day surgery. It is important that student nurses are exposed to clinical practice within the day surgery unit. Some students, for a variety of reasons, exhibit a reluctance to experience a day-surgery placement. The writer describes a programme of study which takes place before the students take up their placements to demonstrate that day surgery offers many opportunities for the delivery of highly skilled, specialised nursing care. Day Surgery Nursing is emerging as a speciality in its own right. The clinical skills of the nurse are required alongside the interpersonal, informational and psychological care-giving skills to ensure safety and comfort for the patient whilst in the unit and transfer home where responsibility for care, normally performed by nurses, now lies with the patients and their carers.