Nursing intervention for pre-operative anxiety

Surgical nursing is changing as the type of surgical procedures being performed are becoming more complex and the time for delivering nursing care is reducing. This has resulted in condensing the acute physical care required into a few hours, often to the detriment of other aspects of nursing intervention such as pre- and post-operative anxiety management. A pre-operative psychological care plan for use in a modern, dynamic, surgical arena is briefly outlined as no such strategy currently exists.