Planning and documentation. Addressing patient needs in a day surgery setting

Day surgery has reduced the time allowed for patient contact, but it has not reduced the need for assessment, planning, and delivery of patient care. Day surgery, however, has shifted some responsibility from nurses to patients and their families. Our goals in developing a preoperative assessment plan were to ensure consistent and thorough patient assessment; enhance problem identification and guide appropriate interventions; provide evaluations based on the needs of the day surgery patient; assist patients and families in assuming increased responsibility for postoperative care; provide achievable and manageable documentation of patient information gathered in a compressed amount of time; and facilitate communication between the patient and the health care team. We feel our assessment documenting system meets these goals and allows nurses and patients to adapt to the changes in traditional roles both parties experience when day surgery procedures are performed.